Fast food fan, David Kime, gets Burger King drive-thru funeral

York - David Kime Jr., 88-year-old Pennsylvania man of West York, got a Burger King drive-thru funeral on Saturday. He bade goodbye with a pass through his favorite fast food stop and his favorite burger, lettuce on the WHOPPER JR., placed on his casket.

.According to USA Today, Linda Phiel, one of Kime's three daughters, placed her father's last burger on top of his flag-draped, flower-decked coffin. She explained to the York Daily Record why the family decided to accord the York man, described has having "lived by his own rules," Burger King last rites: "All of us are going to be in this position … And I think there’s a certain group who think we should be crying. But on the other hand, he lived a wonderful life and on his own terms." She said that a drive-thru funeral for her father was not meant to make light of the occasion, but to honor him. Kime's insistence on "living by his own rules" informed the decision to make one last drive-thru visit on the way to the cemetery. Phiel said as her father got older, she gave up efforts to make him adapt a "healthier diet," and he earned the right to live as he wished. USA Today reports Phiel said her father's "version of eating healthy was the lettuce on the WHOPPER JR." According to the York Daily Record, Phiel said her father ate what he wanted since her mother, Grace, died 25 years ago. Phiel said: "My mother kind of kept him in check. When she died, for a while, he would eat with us. But he considered us health freaks because we ate things that were green, like broccoli." According to Phiel, Kime was a borderline diabetic and his family tried to get him to adopt a "healthier diet" so he can live longer. But Phiel said: "He would say, 'I won't live longer, it will just seem like it because I'll be more miserable faster.'" Phiel added: "He was not prejudiced. He would go to any fast food place anyone invited him to." She said her father loved tacos, pizza, hamburgers, subs and hot dogs. She enjoyed many fast food trips with her father: "He would take his Cadillac, which he loved, and drive up to Hanover and have a gut-buster... If it wasn't the kind of day to drive out to Hanover, he would drive out to Wiener World on Memory Lane." USA Today reports Kime, 88, was a World War II veteran. He died on Jan. 20. According to the York Daily Record, the restaurant manager Margaret Hess, witnessed the drive-thru funeral. Hess said she knew his face and his order. The restaurant made 40 burgers for the procession. The manager said she knew Kime's face and order. She said it was “nice to know he was a loyal customer up until the end — the very end.”