Tennessee Code Annotated

Tenn. Code Ann. § 62-5-101 (2026)

Chapter definitions

✓ current as of May 2026

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As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) "Authorizing agent or agents" means a person or persons legally entitled to authorize the cremation of a dead human body or body parts. "Authorizing agent or agents" does not include a funeral director or funeral establishment;

(2) "Board" means the board of funeral directors and embalmers;

(3) "Cremation" means the heating process by which a human body or body parts are reduced to bone fragments through combustion and evaporation;

(4) "Crematory" means the building or portion of a building that houses one (1) or more cremation chambers used for the reduction of body parts or bodies of deceased persons to cremated remains and the holding facility. "Crematory" includes crematorium;

(5) "Embalming" means the preservation and disinfection, restoration or attempted preservation or disinfection of dead human bodies by the application of chemicals externally or internally, or both;

(6)
- (A) "Funeral directing" means the:
  - (i) Practice of directing or supervising funerals or the practice of preparing dead human bodies for burial by any means, other than by embalming, or the disposition of dead human bodies;
  - (ii) Making of arrangements to provide for funeral services or the making of financial arrangements for the rendering of funeral services;
  - (iii) Provision or maintenance of a place for the preparation for disposition or for the care or disposition of dead human bodies;
  - (iv) Use of the word or term "funeral director," "undertaker," "mortician," "funeral parlor," "funeral chapel" or any other word or term from which can be implied the practice of funeral directing; or
  - (v) Holding out to the public that one is a funeral director or engaged in a practice described in this subdivision (6);
- (B) For the purposes of this chapter, the following are exempted from the definition of "funeral directing":
  - (i) The sale, maintenance and beautification of grave spaces;
  - (ii) The sale, installation and maintenance of permanent grave or crypt markers;
  - (iii) The opening and closing of a grave or crypt and the provision of the necessary grave or crypt equipment required for the final interment or entombment of casketed human bodies or cremated human remains;
  - (iv) The sale and maintenance of crypts constructed of permanent material as an integral part of a group of crypts that are constructed on the site of intended use in a cemetery;
  - (v) The sale and maintenance of above ground mausoleum crypts; and
  - (vi) The sale of funeral merchandise;
- (C) Nothing in this section shall be construed as in conflict with § 46-2-101;

(7) "Funeral establishment" means any business, whether a proprietorship, partnership, firm, association or corporation, engaged in arranging, directing or supervising funerals for profit or other benefit, the preparing of dead human bodies for burial, the disposition of dead human bodies, the provision or maintenance of place for the preparation for disposition, or for the care or disposition of human bodies;

(8) "Licensee" means an embalmer or funeral director who holds a license issued by the board;

(9) "Licensing period" means the period of time that a funeral director's or embalmer's license is in effect in this state;

(10) "Removal service":
- (A) Means any person or entity that engages in arranging, directing, supervising or performing the transportation of deceased human remains for a fee; and
- (B) Does not include:
  - (i) A licensed funeral director, a licensed embalmer, a licensed funeral establishment or person's employees;
  - (ii) A federal, state or county government agency involved in the transportation of deceased human remains; and
  - (iii) A private, for-profit ambulance service licensed pursuant to the Emergency Medical Services Act of 1983, compiled in title 68, chapter 140, part 3;

(11) "Resident trainee" or "apprentice" means a person who is engaged in learning to practice as a funeral director or embalmer, as the case may be, under the personal supervision and instruction of a duly licensed funeral director or embalmer of this state under this chapter;

(12) "State funeral directors association" means the Tennessee Funeral Directors Association or the Tennessee Funeral Directors and Morticians Association, a corporation; and

(13) "Unlicensed assistant":
- (A) Means an individual who assists in the operation of a funeral establishment, under the direction and supervision of a funeral director or embalmer, and who is not a licensed funeral director or embalmer pursuant to § 62-5-303; and
- (B) Does not mean an individual who previously held a funeral director or embalmer license in this state that was revoked, suspended, or voluntarily surrendered with outstanding complaints.

Amended by 2022 Tenn. Acts, ch. 1014, s 3, eff. 5/9/2022.

Amended by 2013 Tenn. Acts, ch. 437, s 1, eff. 1/1/2014.

Acts 1951, ch. 13, § 2 (Williams, § 7140.2); Acts 1968, ch. 542, § 1; 1972, ch. 553, § 1; T.C.A. (orig. ed.), § 62-501; Acts 1997 , ch. 275, § 1; 2002, ch. 809, § 1; 2010 , ch. 720, §§ 3, 4.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 9 cases (3 in the last 5 years), 2000–2026 · leading case: Linda F. Seals v. H & F, Inc., 301 S.W.3d 237 (Tenn. 2010).

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Linda F. Seals v. H & F, Inc., 301 S.W.3d 237 (Tenn. 2010). · cites it 4× “” Tenn. Code Ann. § 62-5-101 (4) (2009). -17- Read together, these provisions establish that the operator of a crematory facility is the party actually responsible for the cremation.”

Craigmiles v. Giles, 110 F. Supp. 2d 658 (E.D. Tenn. 2000). · cites it 5× “§§ 62-5-101 - 62-5-611, that requires any person who sells “funeral merchandise” to hold a funeral director’s license issued by the State of Tennessee.”

Bmc Enter., Inc. v. City of Mt. Juliet, 273 S.W.3d 619 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2008). · cites it 8× “After reviewing the record and hearing arguments of counsel, the Trial Court concluded that “crematories were basically part of an on-going business of funeral homes,” relying on the Administrative Record, the definition of funeral establishments at Tenn.”

Craigmiles v. Giles, 312 F.3d 220 (6th Cir. 2002). “” Tenn.Code Ann. § 62-5-101(a)(3)(A)(ii) (emphasis added).”

Van Ness v. Stephens (M.D. Tenn. 2025). · cites it 11× “Likewise, Tenn. Code Ann. § 62-5-101 may also be helpful in determining what is defined as “Funeral Directing” under Tennessee Code.”

Nan E. Scott v. The City of Knoxville (Tenn. Ct. App. 2015). · cites it 6× “1 Tennessee Code Annotated section 62-5-101(4) defines “crematory” as “the building or portion of a building that houses one (1) or more cremation chambers used for the reduction of body parts or bodies of deceased persons to cremated remains and the holding facility.”

Van Ness v. Stephens (M.D. Tenn. 2025). · cites it 3× “ANALYSIS Van Ness requests this Court enter a preliminary injunction “enjoining [the Funeral Board] from enforcing Tennessee’s funeral-licensing statutes against him for [h]is pure speech, religious expression, peaceable assembly, freedom of the press, and right to petition his…”

Akilah Louise Wofford v. M.J. Edwards & Sons Funeral Home, Inc., 528 S.W.3d 524 (2017). “It is clear that, at the beginning of the process, pursuant to the Tenn. Code Ann. § 62-5-101 (6)(A), the funeral home takes possession of the remains, and then, at some point in time, the duty to provide a proper burial shifts to the cemetery.”

State of Tennessee v. Alfonvo Montell Johnson a.ka. Alfonzo Montell Johnson (Tenn. Crim. App. 2026). · cites it 2× “, Tenn. Code Ann. § 62-5-101 to -810. 10 contends that the State failed to show that the manner of the disposal of the bodies in this case violated either provision.”

— Tenn. Code Ann. § 62-5-101(13) — 1 case

Van Ness v. Stephens (M.D. Tenn. 2025). “Likewise, Tenn. Code Ann. § 62-5-101 may also be helpful in determining what is defined as “Funeral Directing” under Tennessee Code.”

— Tenn. Code Ann. § 62-5-101(3)(A)(ii) — 1 case

Craigmiles v. Giles, 110 F. Supp. 2d 658 (E.D. Tenn. 2000). “§§ 62-5-101 - 62-5-611, that requires any person who sells “funeral merchandise” to hold a funeral director’s license issued by the State of Tennessee.”

— Tenn. Code Ann. § 62-5-101(4) — 2 cases

Linda F. Seals v. H & F, Inc., 301 S.W.3d 237 (Tenn. 2010). “” Tenn. Code Ann. § 62-5-101 (4) (2009). -17- Read together, these provisions establish that the operator of a crematory facility is the party actually responsible for the cremation.”

Nan E. Scott v. The City of Knoxville (Tenn. Ct. App. 2015). “1 Tennessee Code Annotated section 62-5-101(4) defines “crematory” as “the building or portion of a building that houses one (1) or more cremation chambers used for the reduction of body parts or bodies of deceased persons to cremated remains and the holding facility.”

— Tenn. Code Ann. § 62-5-101(6)(A)(i) — 1 case

— Tenn. Code Ann. § 62-5-101(7) — 2 cases

Bmc Enter., Inc. v. City of Mt. Juliet, 273 S.W.3d 619 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2008). “After reviewing the record and hearing arguments of counsel, the Trial Court concluded that “crematories were basically part of an on-going business of funeral homes,” relying on the Administrative Record, the definition of funeral establishments at Tenn.”

— Tenn. Code Ann. § 62-5-101(a)(3)(A)(ii) — 1 case

Craigmiles v. Giles, 312 F.3d 220 (6th Cir. 2002). “” Tenn.Code Ann. § 62-5-101(a)(3)(A)(ii) (emphasis added).”

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