Sixkiller Funeral Museum, Thayer
February 2026
How did Chris and Laila Sixkiller get started in this unusual pursuit?
“My dad was in the funeral industry,” says Laila, who has been collecting funeral-related items for the past 12 years. “When I met my husband, he was driving hearses. Chris is a fan of station wagons and Cadillacs; hearses are the quickest way to get both. We took our interests and combined them.”
The couple was living in Springfield when they found the three-story building in Thayer for sale. “It had ample garage space for our five hearses, and I wanted to use the storefront for the museum.”
The ground floor houses the museum while the couple lives on the second floor. Laila operates an auto upholstery business on the third floor. The building is built into a hillside so each level has road access, and “we can drive into the second- floor garage and the third-floor upholstery shop.”
They moved to Thayer in July 2023 and opened the museum in October of that year during the Thayer Fall Festival. Although much of the building was basically a shell and needed lots of work, the 2,500-square-foot storefront was useable with just a fresh coat of paint.
Of the hundreds of items in the collection, Laila likes to showcase things related to female undertakers. She has four women’s embalmer licenses dating from 1928 to 1950. “These are very unusual for that time frame,” she says. “You had to be born or married into the business.” She also likes the advertising pieces that feature female embalmers.
The most historic—and definitely the heaviest—item is the 1948 Champion embalming table made of porcelain and cast iron. It weighs 950 pounds.
The table is from the Gorman-Scharpf funeral home in Springfield. According to Laila’s research, Robert Stroud, the Birdman of Alcatraz, died at the Medical Center for Federal Prisons in Springfield in 1963 and underwent his post-mortem examination on the table.
Halloween is a natural fit for special events and decorations at the museum, but the upcoming holiday season brings a meet-and-greet with a surprise visitor: Krampus, an 8-foot animatron that moves and makes noises. A special event is being planned; check the Sixkiller Funeral Museum’s Facebook page, for details about that and other events throughout the year.
The Sixkiller Funeral Museum is located at 203 Front Street and is open Friday through Sunday year-round by appointment by calling 417-840-4054. There is no admission fee, but donations are accepted.