King Tutankhamun is featured in the touring funeral exhibit as an example of how the ancient Egyptian tradition focused on the afterlife and thus buried the boy king with more than 5,400 artifacts.

Photos by STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS The Roanoke Times

Helen Wray (left) and her daughter, Brenda Williams, of Rocky Mount walk through the "Reflections: The American Funeral" exhibit that was parked beside Flora Funeral Service on Thursday. The exhibit featured memorabilia from historical and well-known figures' funerals, including that of Elvis Presley.

ROCKY MOUNT -- For some, a trip to a local funeral home Thursday wasn't to mark the death of a loved one, but to reflect on the history and tradition of funerals.

A tractor-trailer transporting "Reflections: The American Funeral" set up outside Flora Funeral Service for the day.

Lee Flora, president of the funeral home, said he saw the exhibit in Boston at the National Funeral Directors Association's International Convention and Expo last month. After his experience, he talked the tour operators into making a stop in Rocky Mount on their way to Atlanta.

"It speaks to the value of funerals and memorialization," Flora said.

The exhibit featured more than 10 areas of information, including memorable funerals, national cemeteries where fallen soldiers are buried and early American funeral practices.

"A funeral is about reflection," said Abigail Van Gelder, one of the tour operators. "It's a way to remember a person, to honor a person. It's also for those left behind. This shows the different ways we honor our dead."

Whether its a bugler playing taps in a military funeral or a horse without a rider, the exhibit explains the many funeral traditions.

"I'm surprised at how much has changed between now and then," said Tommy Grant as he and his wife snacked on cookies and cider in the funeral home after touring the exhibit.

A group of funeral directors in Richmond partnered with MRA Experiential Tours and Equipment to take the traveling exhibit to the curious masses. Pieces in the exhibit -- including a replica of Abraham Lincoln's casket and commemorative magazines marking historic funerals -- were donated by some funeral homes or purchased using donations and sponsorships, Van Gelder said.

Van Gelder and her husband, Josh, have driven the tractor-trailer across the country, from Baltimore and Washington, D.C., to Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. This is the first time it has stopped in the Roanoke area, but some already wondered when it was coming back.

Joyce Cain wants to bring her grandchildren to see the history behind funerals.

"They should have bought the school kids here," she said. "Let them learn something."

The history of embalming was new to Cain, as was the story behind Lincoln's train ride from Washington to his final resting place in Springfield, Ill. Lincoln was the first public figure to be embalmed, in 1865, sparking the beginning of the modern funeral service, according to information in the exhibit presented as a mock funeral program.

For Cain, the exhibit was educational and allowed her to reminisce.

"I remember where I was when President Kennedy was killed," she said, a few steps away from the section of the exhibit dedicated to his funeral and the poem "Six White Horses." "I was switching classes, in high school."

The exhibit features not only information on the past, but tips for the future.

At one end of the trailer a video looped constantly with advice on funeral planning.

"Oh, I'm not ready for that," Brenda Williams said as she made her way out to the parking lot.