Cremation Services
in Gresham, Oregon
Direct cremation for Gresham families is $1,194, itemized in full, with nothing added later. Make every arrangement from home with a licensed local team you can reach at any hour.
We’re With You Every Step of the Way
Our staff of dedicated professionals is available to guide you through all aspects of arranging a cremation service.
Arrangements
Transfer
Once payment is received, we will respond to the place of passing within our service area. We’ll contact you with an estimated arrival time and typically arrive within 1–2 hours.
Documentation
Return
Cremation Made Simple
We provide a simple direct cremation package that can be arranged online or over the phone. No funeral home visits or sales pitches. Our $1,194 Simple Cremation package includes everything you need:
Transportation Services
Death Certificate Filing
Social Security Notification
Travel Safe Urn
24/7 Customer Support
About Us
Western Cremation Alliance serves the Portland metro, from Multnomah County out through Washington, Clackamas and Clark. A simple, affordable alternative to a traditional funeral is what most families are after now, and it is all we do. From Gresham and Troutdale west through Portland and across the river to Vancouver, our licensed team supports you at every step. Reach out for a personalized quote.
What comes with a Gresham cremation?
Our simple cremation is $1,194, plus the $30.00 Oregon State filing fee. Multnomah County adds nothing on top of it. That is the whole price, and every part of it is published.
We will be straight about Gresham. It is not a market where we are the least expensive, and you should know that before you read anything else here. Affordable Funeral Alternatives publishes $755, or $815 with a container, on a price list effective October 2025. Gresham Memorial Chapel on SE Roberts Avenue publishes $1,035, or $1,095 with a container, from the same month. Both are independent local firms, Gresham Memorial family-operated since 1998, and both come in under us. If price alone decides it, they deserve your call.
Bateman Carroll on West Powell is owned by Service Corporation International and trades as Dignity Memorial. They publish no price, and the figures circulating online for them differ by more than $1,300, so ask them for their General Price List before you compare. Care Cremation Service on SW Walters Drive lists $1,295 without stating what it includes.
What the table below sets out is what our figure covers, so you are comparing the same thing rather than two numbers.
| What you get | Our $1,194 | Lowest-priced Gresham firms |
|---|---|---|
| Licensed funeral director and staff | Included | Included |
| Transportation into our care | Included, any hour | Included, often within a set radius |
| Refrigerated care | Up to 10 days | Commonly 3–5 days, then daily fees |
| Cremation container | Included | $60 extra at both local firms |
| Basic urn for the ashes | Included | Usually extra |
| Transfer radius | Anywhere in our service area | One local firm caps transfers at 30 miles |
| Multnomah County filing fee | Itemized, $30.00 | Billed at cost, quoted later |
| Death certificates | $30 each, ordered for you | $25 each, you order them |
| Online obituary | Included on our site | Newspaper notice from $100 in The Outlook |
| Arrangements without a visit | Every step online or by phone | One local firm is by appointment only |
Other providers’ figures are read from their own published price lists, effective October 20, 2025. Under the FTC Funeral Rule any funeral home must give you a written price list on request, including the ones that publish nothing online.
Imminent Need
Imminent need arrangements are made when a loved one is expected to pass soon, but has not yet died. This allows families to prepare in advance by selecting services, completing forms, and understanding next steps, ensuring everything is in place ahead of time.
Making Decisions Now Eases the Burden in Difficult Moments
When a loved one is nearing the end of life, the emotional toll can be overwhelming. Having a clear plan in place helps families avoid rushed decisions during a stressful time. Our team is available to guide you through each step, answer your questions, and help complete the necessary paperwork so everything is ready when the time comes. This service gives you peace of mind and allows you to focus on what matters most.
What Our Families Are Saying
Meet Our Care Team
Adrien Hunter
Owner & Managing Funeral Director
Adrien Hunter is a licensed Funeral Director with two decades of dedicated experience serving families throughout the Seattle and Portland metro areas. A Phi Theta Kappa graduate of Mt. Hood Community College in Funeral Service Education, Adrien is committed to providing compassionate, respectful, and personalized care. When he's not assisting families, Adrien enjoys exploring new destinations, attending live music events, and spending quality time with his family.
Nearby cities we also serve
Prices, county fees and local details differ from one city to the next. See all locations we serve.
Gresham Cremation Information
Gresham is Oregon’s fourth largest city and has its own hospital, its own newspaper and its own cemetery, so more of this is local than in most of East County. These are the questions we are asked most, answered for Multnomah County specifically.
Where are you located? Can I come in to make arrangements?
We cover both metros. In Washington that is King, Pierce, Snohomish and Clark counties; in Oregon, Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas. Our mailing address and our arrangement staff are in King County.
Our partner crematory and transportation center are in Portland, about fifteen miles west of Gresham. We collect at any hour, with no additional charge for a night or weekend transfer.
Here is the trade we are asking you to make. We cannot meet you in person to make the arrangements. Not at the crematory, not anywhere. The reason our price is what it is, is that we do not carry the buildings and the front-of-house staff that go into a three thousand dollar cremation. Everything is done online or by phone with a licensed arranger. Some families want a room and a desk, and they should have one.
Which hospitals and hospice agencies do you collect from in Gresham?
Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center at 24800 SE Stark Street is Gresham’s own hospital, with an emergency department open around the clock, and it is where most Gresham residents who die in the hospital die. Adventist Health Portland on SE Market Street is about eight miles west and takes a good deal of East County as well.
No licensed hospice agency is based in Gresham itself. Mt. Hood Hospice, working out of Sandy on Pioneer Boulevard, explicitly serves Gresham and has been a non-profit community agency for more than forty-five years. Their number is 503-668-5545. The nearest Portland-based agencies are Adventist Health Hospice on NE 122nd Avenue and Pinnacle Hospice on SE Washington Street. Providence, Kaiser and Housecall Providers all cover the area from further in.
We collect from all of these, and from private homes and care facilities, at any hour. If your person is on hospice service, their nurse can call us directly.
Where do I get a copy of a death certificate in Gresham?
Multnomah County Vital Records is at 847 NE 19th Avenue, Suite 350, Portland, OR 97232, open weekdays 8:00 to 4:30. The number is 503-988-3745.
Certified copies are $25.00 each, first copy and additional copies alike, and the short form and long form cost the same. Multnomah publishes a processing time of one to three business days, which none of the other counties we serve will commit to, and in practice it is the quickest of them.
The county can issue a certificate only within six months of the death, and only for deaths that occurred in Multnomah County. After that the record moves to the Oregon Center for Health Statistics at 971-673-1190.
If you do not drive, the MAX Blue Line runs from Gresham straight into central Portland, which puts the records office within reach. We also order certificates for the families we serve at $30 each and file the record for you.
How do I publish a newspaper obituary in Gresham?
Gresham is better served than most of the places we work. The Outlook is still printing, weekly since June 2025 having been twice weekly before that, and obituaries there start at about $100. That is the least expensive verified placement anywhere in either metro we serve.
Submissions go through theoutlookonline.com or 503-492-5143, with up to two photographs, and a representative calls back to confirm and take payment. The Oregonian starts at $264 and includes a permanent online memorial page.
The Portland Tribune stopped printing in June 2025, so despite what several local funeral home pages still say, a print Tribune obituary is no longer available. A complete obituary on this site, with photographs, is included in our price at no charge.
What are the laws for scattering ashes in Oregon?
Oregon sets no state law governing where cremated remains may be kept or scattered. Ashes may stay at home, be divided among family members, be buried, or be scattered on private land with the owner’s permission. Scattering on federal land generally requires a permit, and rules differ by agency.
Scattering at sea is available through us for $195.
Where can ashes be interred near Gresham?
Forest Lawn Cemetery and Mausoleum at 400 SW Walters Drive has indoor, outdoor and glass-front niches. Their number is 503-665-1197. Gresham Pioneer Cemetery, just west of Main City Park, dates to 1859 and is maintained by Metro, the regional government, so call them about current availability.
One option is worth knowing about if it applies to your family. Willamette National Cemetery, about ten miles southwest, has columbaria with space currently available, and interment there is free to eligible veterans and their dependents. The number is 1-800-535-1117. A good many East County families qualify and never find out.
We do not sell cemetery property and we take no commission on it, so you are free to arrange this directly with whichever cemetery you choose.
What help is available with cremation costs in Gresham?
Several of these are real money and almost none of them arrive unprompted. We have put them in the order we would work through them ourselves.
The first call is Social Security, for the $255 lump-sum death payment. It goes to a surviving spouse, and where there is none, to a child who is under 18, or under 20 and in school, or disabled before 21. Claim it within two years or lose it. The number is 1-800-772-1213, weekdays 8:00 to 7:00. You may be able to begin online through a my Social Security account. If you want to go in, book first: Social Security requires appointments now. Find your office at ssa.gov/locator rather than from a list on a funeral home website, ours included.
If the person was a veteran, start here before anything else. Willamette National Cemetery, 11800 SE Mount Scott Boulevard in Portland, is the nearest VA national cemetery, at 503-273-5250. It has space for both casketed and cremated remains. The office is open weekdays 8:00 to 4:30 and the grounds daily from 7:00. From Gresham it is about ten miles southwest, the shortest run to a national cemetery of any city we serve on this side of the river.
We quote the VA directly here because paraphrase causes trouble. Provided “at no cost to the family” are a gravesite where space allows, the opening and closing, perpetual care, a Government headstone or marker, a burial flag and a Presidential Memorial Certificate. Cremated remains, the VA says, are inurned “in the same manner and with the same honors as casketed remains.” The same applies to a spouse or a dependent child, with one difference: their name goes on the veteran’s headstone, not a separate marker. And a surviving spouse who has since remarried is still eligible. That single fact is misstated more often than anything else in this area. Booking is centralised. Call the National Cemetery Scheduling Office, 1-800-535-1117, and fax the DD-214 to 1-866-900-6417.
Money, as distinct from the cemetery itself. Where the death was not service connected the VA pays a $1,002 burial allowance plus $1,002 toward a plot, rates effective October 1, 2025, claimed on Form 21P-530EZ inside two years of the burial. The trap: choosing a national cemetery forfeits the plot allowance, because there is no plot expense to reimburse. Budget for one or the other, never both. Call 1-800-827-1000.
Your county veteran service office will file the VA paperwork for you, free, and correctly, which is worth more than it sounds. Multnomah County Veterans’ Services is at 209 SW 4th Avenue, Suite 510, Portland, on 503-988-8387. An appointment is required. The Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs is at 1-800-692-9666.
For an enrolled member of a federally recognized tribe, phone the tribe before anything else here. Two Oregon tribes publish funeral benefits large enough to change the whole picture, and both maintain Portland offices. The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde pay up to $7,000 directly to the funeral home, and $400 toward a reception, for members and their spouses, parents and children under 25, with free cemetery plots at the tribal cemetery; 1-800-422-0232 extension 2253, or 503-879-1881 at 4445 SW Barbur Boulevard. The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians pay up to $6,000 plus a $1,000 death benefit, with no application form; 541-444-2532, or 503-238-1512 at 3220 SW 1st Avenue.
The nine federally recognized tribes of Oregon: Burns Paiute Tribe, 541-573-2088. Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, 541-888-9577. Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, 503-879-5211. Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, 541-444-2532. Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, 541-276-3165. Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs, 541-553-1161. Coquille Indian Tribe, 541-756-0904. Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, 541-672-9405. The Klamath Tribes, 541-783-2219. For a tribe outside Oregon, contact it directly. Bureau of Indian Affairs burial assistance of up to $3,500 is separately available to indigent enrolled members through the Northwest Regional Office at 911 NE 11th Avenue, Portland.
One that almost never appears on a funeral home website: Oregon covers funeral expenses in homicide cases. Crime Victims’ Compensation at the Oregon Department of Justice pays up to $5,000 to the funeral provider directly, and may add more on the facts, besides crime scene clean-up and grief counseling for relatives. The deadlines are tight and unforgiving: the crime reported to police within 72 hours and the claim filed within one year. Call 1-800-503-7983 or use your county district attorney’s victim assistance office.
Oregon and Washington part company here. No county in the Oregon metro, Multnomah included, runs an indigent cremation program. The state does, through the Oregon Indigent Disposition Program at the Oregon Mortuary and Cemetery Board under ORS 97.170, reachable at 971-673-1504. Understand two features of it before relying on it: the reimbursement goes to the funeral home rather than the family, so there is nothing for a family to apply to; and it applies only where the body is unclaimed. Once anybody signs a contract to pay, the person is no longer indigent under the statute. Tell us first if this is your situation.
NARA Northwest keeps a Gresham office at 355 NW Division Street at 503-231-2641. They do not fund funerals and we would rather not imply otherwise, but for a Native family in east county who needs somewhere to start, they are a real point of contact.
If you have read all that and nothing fits, call us. Working out what a family actually qualifies for is part of the job, not a favor.