Two people with local ties are among eight appointees to the new State Board of Embalmers, Funeral Directors, Cemeteries, and Burial Services. The new board assumed oversight of the funeral industry on July 1st.Act 788 of 2017 merged three autonomous boards Cemetery, Burial Association, and Embalmers and Funeral Directors into the single entity. The new board falls under the oversight of the State Insurance Department.
Governor Asa Huctchinson has appointed Bill Booker, president of Roller Funeral Homes of Little Rock, and Josephine Perry of Marshall to the new board.
The law requires the board include two licensed embalmers/funeral directors, two owners or operators of a licensed perpetual care cemetery, two people engaged in the operation of a burial association; and two consumer representatives, including one person to represent elderly consumers.
Booker will hold one of two positions representing owners or operators of a licensed perpetual care cemetery, while Perry will represent the elderly consumer community.
The new board is the result of efforts by the governor to increase efficiency in state government.
Booker has served as chair of the Arkansas Cemetery Board. He told KTLO, Classic Hits and The Boot news at the time of the law’s passage in 2017 in one way the Arkansas Insurance Department is already interfacing with the death care profession.
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However, Booker says combining the three boards all under the Insurance Department is not quite as natural.
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Booker says for those funeral homes that also have life insurance companies, they are already used to navigating the waters of the Arkansas Insurance Department.
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Booker’s term on the new State Board of Embalmers, Funeral Directors, Cemeteries, and Burial Services expires in 2021, while Perry’s will expire in 2020.
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