ERIE, Pa - Dairy farmer Bradleys Roadhouse always wanted to be a funeral director, and when he finally obtained his mortician's license last year he was all set to open his own funeral home. He even came up with what he considered to be the perfect name: "Deaths-'R-Us." The only trouble was that an obsure state law precluded Roadhouse from using that name. The Pennsylvania Code provides that "[n]o funeral practice . . . may be conducted under any other name than the name" of the person who was granted a license from the state. According to Professor Hadley V. Baxendale of Crystal State Law School, the law was intended to prevent morticians from lending their establishments monikers that the funeral industry considers to be undignified or in bad taste, "much like the name Mr. Roadhouse chose."
But Mr. Roadhouse wasn't about to let some arcane law stand in the way of his dream, so he has legally changed his own name to "Arthur J. Deaths-'R-Us." Now his "Deaths-'R-Us Funeral Home" will be in full compliance with the letter, if not the spirit, of the state law.
One more roadblock remains. The former Mr. Roadhouse's wife, Carolyn Roadhouse, won't go along with the name change. "I put up with being 'Mrs. Bradleys Roadhouse' all these years, even though it made me sound like I was married to a tavern," she said. "So what, now I'm supposed to go the PTA meetings and identify myself as 'Carolyn J. Deaths-'R-Us'? What does my husband think I am, a 'Batman' criminal?"
The former Mr. Roadhouse says that if he can't convince his wife to change her name, he'll have no choice but to change his own name one more time -- to "Arthur J. Deaths-'R-Me."
