Nation & World

<< Previous   of   Next >> Associated Press  (click to enlarge) Bill Bramanti leans on the coffin he had made to look like a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon.   ADVERTISEMENT   Related Stories • Why'd you have to go and make things so complicated? 5/6/08   CONTACT THE HERALD Do you have a news tip? newstips@heraldnet.com | 425.339.3400   Published: Tuesday, May 6, 2008 Beer bash inaugurates man's custom coffin Associated Press SOUTH CHICAGO HEIGHTS, Ill. -- Bill Bramanti will love Pabst Blue Ribbon eternally, and he's got the custom-made beer-can casket to prove it. "I actually fit, because I got in here," said Bramanti of South Chicago Heights. The 67-year-old village administrator for Glenwood doesn't plan on needing it anytime soon, though. He threw a party Saturday for friends and filled his silver coffin -- designed in Pabst's colors of red, white and blue -- with ice and his favorite brew. "Why put such a great novelty piece up on a shelf in storage when you could use it only the way Bill Bramanti would use it?" said Bramanti's daughter, Cathy Bramanti, 42. Bramanti ordered the casket from Panozzo Bros. Funeral Home in Chicago Heights, and Scott Sign Co. of Chicago Heights designed the beer can.

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