Beer can casket serves double duty

SOUTH CHICAGO HEIGHTS | The Discovery Channel found South Chicago Heights yesterday.

A television crew from Discovery was in town to film a piece for a program called "Outrageous Final Wishes."

The focus was on Bill Bramanti, who in 2008 had a coffin designed to look like a Pabst Blue Ribbon beer can. The episode featuring Bramanti is expected to air toward the end of the year.

"In 2004, I had, I believe it was my fourth heart attack," Bramanti said. "And it was a good one."

Bramanti figured he would make things easier for his family by making his final arrangements in advance. So he went with his two daughters to Panozzo Bros. Funeral Home in Chicago Heights.

"Being in construction, I thought I would want a wooden one, but there was nothing that really grabbed me," Bramanti said.

Then he noticed a silver casket, and it reminded him of a can of his favorite beer -- Pabst Blue Ribbon.

With help from the Scott Sign Co. of Chicago Heights, the casket was designed to look like a can of Bramanti's beverage of choice.

Now, Bramanti, 70, has found a creative way to use the coffin that he keeps in the barn on his property on East 34th Street. At least once a month he has a party and fills the coffin with ice to serve cans of PBR to his guests.

"I said, if I have to buy a coffin and spend thousands of dollars, I want to use it before I have to use it," Bramanti said. "So I'm getting my money's worth out of this."

Saturday's Discovery Channel taping coincided with Bramanti's third annual casket party, and many of his friends and family showed up for food and to drink beer from the giant, unusual cooler.

Bramanti's two daughters, Cathy and Christy, came from California for the party.

Cathy Bramanti supported her father's idea to have a Pabst coffin for his final resting place.

"My dad, he's a very unique personality," she said. "He's very big in personality. It fits him. I wasn't surprised. To me it was just typical."

Bill passed his fondness for Pabst to his daughter, Christy, who held a can of it while discussing how she couldn't wait to tell her friends what her dad had created.

"When I told them he made it into a cooler, that just made it even cooler, literally," she said.

Darrel Boren is a longtime friend of Bramanti. The South Chicago Heights resident was among those who attended Saturday's casket party.

Boren said he went with Bramanti when he picked up the casket.

"It kind of surprised me, but it didn't surprise me, because that's just the way Bill is," Boren said. "He's his own kind of man. You've gotta love the guy."