Neilson Barnard
Shannen Doherty had some ideas for her funeral before her death.
The "Beverly Hills, 90210" actor died on Saturday. In a January episode of her "Let's Be Clear with Shannen Doherty" podcast featuring guest Chris Cortazzo, she spoke about what she wanted her burial arrangements to be like.
"I want to be mixed with my dog, and I want to be mixed with my dad. I do not want to be buried. I want to be cremated," Doherty told Cortazzo, her best friend and the executor of her will.
She also mentioned being intrigued by the idea of using her remains to "grow a tree."
When Cortazzo mentioned that he would "wear" some of Dohery's remains around his neck as a necklace, Doherty said she had done the same with some of her father's remains.
"I did that with my dad. I had my dad around my neck for a little bit. I actually don't know where that necklace went, but I was having nightmares," Doherty said.
For her final resting place, Doherty said she would "have to find a place that my dad and I both really loved and meant a lot to us," adding that they spent their most precious time together in Malibu.
As for her funeral service, Doherty said she preferred a "shorter" list of attendees and wanted it to be held at her house, "but like a party."
Doherty was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 but went into remission in 2017. In 2020, she announced that her illness had returned as stage 4 cancer.
She had spent months getting her affairs in order. On an episode of her podcast that aired in April, Doherty said she was getting rid of her material possessions so her mother wouldn't have to worry about them after she died.
"It feels like you're giving up on something that was very special and important to you," she said. "But you know that it's the right thing to do and that it's going to give you a sense of peace and a sense of calm because you're helping the people that you leave behind just have a cleaner, easier transition."
Like Doherty, more and more Americans are opting for cremation instead of a traditional casket burial. According to data from the National Funeral Director's Association, the national cremation rate overtook the casket burial rate in 2015 and has been on the rise ever since.
Part of the reason is that cremations tend to be cheaper than burials: In 2021, the national median cost of a funeral with a viewing and burial was about $7,848, while the median cost of a funeral with cremation was about $6,971.
However, even cremation has a sizable impact on the environment, leading to alternatives like "aquamation," where a body is dissolved in a vessel, leaving behind bone minerals that are then ground up, or human composting, where a body is mixed with plant material and turned into soil.
A representative for Doherty did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.
