Republic business offers specially crafted caskets, urns

REPUBLIC —Three years ago Kevin Green made his first wooden casket.

His mother-in-law died after a long illness, and Green’s wife, Cynthia, asked him to use his woodworking skills to build her mother’s casket.

The experience helped the Greens heal — and helped launch Kettle River Urn and Casket Company, which the couple run from their Republic home.

“I’ve been working with wood for most of my life. I finally found something that provides me artistic expression and allows me to make a living,” Kevin Green said.

“I enjoy adding different details. No two caskets are the same,” he said.

Since then, he’s sold about 70 wood caskets, all made either from pine or oak. In the past several months the couple added wooden urns to their product list.

Green has taken up a commercial trade that has few practitioners in the northeast corner of Washington state.

The 52-year-old Green moved to Washington from the Midwest 30 years ago. After marrying Cynthia, who grew up in Southern California and moved to Republic 10 years ago, they tried a number of business ventures.

In addition to helping manage the casket company, Cynthia operates the Loose Blue Moose yarn and fabric shop, in Republic.

Several years ago they opened a gourmet restaurant there. “We found out we were not restaurant people” and closed it a few years later, said Kevin Green.

The hard part of the job, both Greens agree, is the emotional impact of selling to people they know, during a time of grief.

“You become a de facto emotional counselor when people come to you,” Kevin said.

The plus side, added Cynthia, is usually being on first-name terms with many of their customers.

“In a small town like this, we’re all connected. When Kevin talks about how emotional it is, that’s because we all know each other and the person who’s died.”

Their sales have come from word-of-mouth and from online marketing. They’ve sold caskets to customers as far away as California and Oregon.

The couple has also used an empty storefront on Main Street to showcase their work. Inside the former hardware store, the Greens have a two-coffin display that has turned heads of people driving through town or walking by.

Green’s wooden caskets start at $695 for an unlined pine version. At the higher end, a lined Kettle River oak casket sells for about $1,495.

Their focus — offering a no-frills casket with minimal overhead — is something others have also identified as a business opportunity. Last year, Issaquah-based Costco Wholesale Corp. started selling metal caskets at prices starting around $925.

Kevin Green’s research has told him the cost of burying a loved one doesn’t come cheap. Caskets are often sold at five or more times their wholesale cost and for a funeral home, “they’re easily their biggest profit center,” Kevin said.

Federal and state laws prohibit funeral homes from adding a surcharge for someone wanting a loved one buried in a box built by Green or some other maker, he added.

Kevin said he’s talked with funeral home managers and wants to continue what he said is a respectful, cooperative relationship.

“But I know they’d prefer I went away,” he said.

He’s built about a half-dozen caskets as inventory, along with about a dozen different urns.

Ferry County resident Darlene Pearson came to the Greens earlier this year to produce a casket for her mother-in-law, Nellie Brannock.

“We knew Kevin had the business. And we had heard that they put their hearts into what they did.” The casket he built was oak-stained pine with blue linen lining, decorated with clouds.

“We buried her in her new nightie with a Bible in her hand and holding her glasses,” said Pearson.

The Greens added urns this year, which range in price from $125 up to $300; each one takes 10 to 15 hours to finish, compared with 30 to 40 hours for each casket.

“I resisted adding urns at first,” Kevin said. Then he realized they offered wider craft options and more variety of styles than caskets, he said.

Reaction from neighbors and friends has ranged from curious questions about why they started the business, to strong statements of support.

Said Cynthia: “It’s probably something that people in a smaller area understand. In rural places like this, you get a sense of the seasons and the cycles of life. So people here are pretty comfortable with the whole process.”