Kingston, Tenn., Feb. 10--
(AP)--Felix "Uncle Bush" Breazeale, Roane County's grizzled old fox-hunter who had his funeral preached nearly five years ago "just to hear what the preacher has to say about me while I'm alive," will be buried Sunday afternoon without church services.
     The 78-year-old Breazeale, who lived a hermit-like existence most of his life with his 17-year-old mule as an only companion, died last night in his mountain cabin.

Thousands at Funeral
     Thousands flocked to the funeral rites on a Sunday in June, 1938, turning what Breazeale had planned as a "quiet funeral" into a sensational spectacle. Dogwood Lane was jammed with traffic and the "corpse" itself was forced to leave the hearse and walk to his coffin near the church. The mule took part in the procession.
     Final resting place for "Uncle Bush," whose request for a small story in a Kingston weekly led to nation-wide publicity of the funeral, will be in Cave Creek Cemetery. The body will lie in state for an hour before burial at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Tried To Smile
     At the services in 1938, "Uncle Bush" mopped his perspiring brow, fanned himself with a big fan and tried to smile. Afterwards he went back to his cabin and "Mule". But, before he left the church, taking his hand-hewn walnut coffin with him, some women fainted and traffic got out of hand.
     Breazeale was an uncle of the late Martin Littleton, a New York lawyer, and of Mrs. Rachel Vanderbilt Morgan.

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Research notes and comments:
     This is another example of someone being given an assignment to produce an article, and doing so without the slightest idea what they are talking about. It is obvious that the writer of the article above relied on other articles that were filled with erroneous, inaccurate, untrue information. Either that, or he/she simply made up certain things and plugged them into the story. It is an excellent illustration of how facts get misconstrued and disseminated without correction, and can eventually become set in stone.
     First, Uncle Bush did not make all the arrangements for the funeral. Augustus Summers made the arrangements and handled the publicity. Uncle Bush did not request a story be written in a Kingston weekly. That, too, was Augustus Summers, editor of the Roane County Banner, the Kingston weekly in question. As a newspaper man, he thought Bush's decision to build his own coffin and have his funeral preached while he was still alive was a good story, so he wrote and published the story and, apparently, submitted it to national and international wire services. Once the idea caught on, Mr. Summers kept it going with updates in the Banner and correspondence to other participants. All Uncle Bush did was build the casket and make himself available for various aspects of the preparations, like getting fitted for a new suit in Knoxville.
     Again, Uncle Bush did not live a hermit-like existence most of his life, with only a mule for companionship. He lived with various family members, had many friends, was a church member for 30 plus years, and was well-known in his community. He never married, but he did not live alone most of his life. He had a particular mule during the last 20 years of his life that he taught to do tricks, and thought was very smart. Mule was not his only companion. Mule was not the only mule he ever owned.
     This writer states, emphatically, that "The mule took part in the procession." Totally false. Mule was left in the barnyard. As a matter of fact, one eyewitness account tells how one of Uncle Bush's pallbearers, as his vehicle was passing the mule's pen, on the way to the church on the day of the funeral, commented that he had almost acquired the mule from Bush in a trade. There is not one eyewitness account that I have seen that mentions the mule taking part in the funeral procession. It is a made-up embellishment.
     Finally, the writer uses the term 'hand-hewn' in reference to the casket Uncle Bush built. That term implies that Bush took an axe and chopped himself a casket out of a solid log. That is a poor choice of terms, at best, and misleading as to what actually happened. Bush felled a tree with a cross-cut saw, had it milled into boards, and used the boards to construct himself a well-built casket. He probably never even wielded an axe in the whole process.

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