What Cremation Costs in Cook, St. Louis and Johnson Counties

Among the funeral homes in these three counties that publish their price lists, the middle price for a direct cremation in September 2026 was about $2,300 in Cook County, Illinois, about $1,700 in St. Louis County, Missouri, and about $1,475 in Johnson County, Kansas. The spread inside each county is wider than the difference between them: the same service ranges from about $1,200 to about $3,100 depending on which firm you call. You do not need to figure everything out at once, but two or three phone calls are worth more here than anywhere else in this process.

These figures come from price lists the funeral homes publish themselves, read in September 2026. They are a starting point for comparison, not a quote: your own price depends on the firm, the options you choose, and charges nobody can fix in advance, like cemetery fees.

What does a direct cremation cost in these counties?

Direct cremation is cremation without a viewing or a ceremony first. It is the least expensive option most funeral homes offer, and it is the service whose price varies most. Across current published price lists in September 2026, the middle figure was about $2,300 in Cook County (five firms), about $1,700 in St. Louis County (six firms) and about $1,475 in Johnson County (nine firms).

The range inside each county is the part worth acting on. In Cook County, Colonial-Wojciechowski lists $2,795.00 with a container provided by the purchaser, Smith-Corcoran lists direct cremations from $2,195, and Simkins in Morton Grove lists $3,025.00. In St. Louis County, Schrader in Ballwin lists $1,700 with a container provided by the family and Kutis lists direct cremations from $2,520.00. In Johnson County, Heartland lists $1,475 with a cremation container purchased by the family, Penwell-Gabel lists direct cremation from $2,045 and The Amos Family lists $3,085.00.

Those are all real, current, published prices for the same basic service in the same market. Nothing about the higher ones is improper; they include different things, and a firm's costs differ. But a family that calls one firm and stops has no way of knowing where on that range they have landed.

What about an immediate burial?

Immediate burial is burial without a viewing or ceremony, and it usually does not include the casket. Among the same published lists, the middle figure was about $3,100 in Cook County, about $2,700 in St. Louis County and about $4,100 in Johnson County. Add the casket, the cemetery plot, the opening and closing fee, and any required outer container, and the total is a different number entirely — those charges are not on the funeral home's list at all.

This is why comparing a single quoted total between two firms can mislead. Compare the same line items, and ask each firm which cemetery charges it is passing through.

Why can you see these prices at all?

Because federal law requires it. Under the Federal Trade Commission's Funeral Rule, funeral directors must give you price information on the telephone if you ask for it, and you do not have to accept a package that may include items you do not want. The FTC's own advice to families is direct: compare prices from at least two funeral homes, and ask for the written list, because the law requires funeral homes to give you written price lists for products and services.

Not every firm publishes that list on its website. In Cook County, several of the lists still online carry effective dates from 2016, 2020 and 2022, which tells you nothing about today's price. A list with an old date is a reason to call, not a reason to assume.

How these numbers were collected

PartingPoint read the General Price List each funeral home publishes on its own website, recorded the effective date printed on the list and the date we read it, and kept only lists effective within the last two years. Every figure above was checked against the document a second time. Prices taken from a third-party site, a package page without a date, or a marketing "starting at" line were not used.

Two limits are worth stating. First, the sample is the firms that publish: five to nine per county, which is enough for a middle figure and not enough to call it the county average. Second, several funeral homes in these counties belong to national groups whose price lists we could not re-verify independently; their figures are excluded from the numbers above, and we are still working on them. When that changes, this page will say so.

What you can do next

Call three funeral homes, ask each for the same two figures — direct cremation with a container you provide, and the basic services fee — and write down the answers with the date. That is fifteen minutes and it is the single highest-value thing you can do for the cost of a funeral.

If the person has already died and you are doing this today, ask the first firm you call to email its price list while you talk. If you are planning ahead, ask for the list by post or email and keep it with the rest of the paperwork; prices change, and a list with a date on it is what lets you check.