By Grusendorf                                         H.B. No. 1571
         76R4716 DLF-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the appearance of the name of a surviving spouse on a
 1-3     grave marker.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Chapter 714, Health and Safety Code, is amended
 1-6     by adding Section 714.005 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 714.005.  NAME OF SURVIVING SPOUSE ON GRAVE MARKER.  (a)
 1-8     Notwithstanding any other law, a surviving spouse may direct that
 1-9     the name of the surviving spouse and the status of the surviving
1-10     spouse as husband or wife appear on the grave marker of the
1-11     deceased spouse. This section applies only to a  surviving spouse:
1-12                 (1)  to whom the deceased spouse was married at death;
1-13     and
1-14                 (2)  who pays:
1-15                       (A)  at least 20 percent of the costs of
1-16     interment of the deceased spouse, including any associated funeral
1-17     costs, other than the costs of the burial plot and grave marker;
1-18     and
1-19                       (B)  any additional cost incurred as a result of
1-20     including this information on the grave marker.
1-21           (b)  A person who owns the rights to the burial plot may
1-22     specify the style of writing in which this information appears on
1-23     the grave marker and may require that this information be included
1-24     on the grave marker in a manner that does not detract from other
 2-1     elements included on the grave marker.
 2-2           (c)  This section applies without regard to who owns the
 2-3     rights to the burial plot or who pays for the burial plot or grave
 2-4     marker.
 2-5           (d)  This section does not apply if the deceased spouse, in a
 2-6     will or other written document, specifies what is to appear on the
 2-7     grave marker or specifies that a person other than the surviving
 2-8     spouse is to select or erect a grave marker.
 2-9           SECTION 2.  This Act applies to a grave marker erected
2-10     before, on, or after the effective date of this Act.
2-11           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-12     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-13     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-14     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-15     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-16     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-17     passage, and it is so enacted.