Condensed Consolidating Financial Statements of Guarantors of Senior Notes and Senior Convertible Notes Condensed Consolidating Balance Sheets (Details) (USD $) In Thousands, unless otherwise specified	Dec. 31, 2013	Dec. 31, 2012	Dec. 31, 2011	Dec. 31, 2010
Condensed Balance Sheet Statements, Captions [Line Items]
Cash and cash equivalents	$ 144,873	$ 92,708	$ 128,569	$ 170,846
Receivables, net	105,899	101,817
Inventories, net	34,565	24,560
Current assets held for sale	4,569	0
Other	103,841	63,410
Total current assets	393,747	282,495
Equity in subsidiaries	0	0
Preneed funeral receivables, net and trust investments	1,870,874	1,535,932
Preneed cemetery receivables, net and trust investments	2,300,911	1,826,835
Cemetery property, at cost	1,749,067	1,489,948
Property and equipment, net	1,922,961	1,641,101
Non-current assets held for sale	737,552	0
Deferred charges and other assets	661,234	425,267
Goodwill, net	1,922,102	1,382,410
Cemetery perpetual care trust investments	1,347,622	1,099,580
Total assets	12,906,070	9,683,568
Accounts payable and accrued liabilities	486,648	373,783
Current maturities of long-term debt	146,362	31,429
Current liabilities held for sale	3,183	0
Income taxes	6,391	6,892
Total current liabilities	642,584	412,104
Long-term debt	3,155,548	1,916,621
Deferred preneed funeral revenues	686,299	536,647
Deferred preneed cemetery revenues	923,155	861,148
Deferred tax liability	619,200	471,198
Non-current liabilities held for sale	428,053	0
Other liabilities	430,393	399,950
Deferred preneed funeral and cemetery receipts held in trust	3,250,586	2,624,321
Care trusts’ corpus	1,345,874	1,098,752
Common stock	212,317	211,047
Other equity	1,113,472	1,020,263
Accumulated other comprehensive income	88,441	111,717
Total common stockholders’ equity	1,414,230	1,343,027
Noncontrolling interests	10,148	19,800
Total equity	1,424,378	1,362,827	1,412,195	1,479,948
Total liabilities and equity	12,906,070	9,683,568
Parent
Condensed Balance Sheet Statements, Captions [Line Items]
Cash and cash equivalents	0	0	0	0
Receivables, net	0	0
Inventories, net	0	0
Current assets held for sale	0
Other	9,083	4,393
Total current assets	9,083	4,393
Equity in subsidiaries	4,132,098	3,108,856
Preneed funeral receivables, net and trust investments	0	0
Preneed cemetery receivables, net and trust investments	0	0
Cemetery property, at cost	0	0
Property and equipment, net	0	0
Non-current assets held for sale	0
Deferred charges and other assets	42,068	23,357
Goodwill, net	0	0
Cemetery perpetual care trust investments	0	0
Total assets	4,183,249	3,136,606
Accounts payable and accrued liabilities	31,914	20,761
Current maturities of long-term debt	0	4,757
Current liabilities held for sale	0
Income taxes	0	0
Total current liabilities	31,914	25,518
Long-term debt	2,731,611	1,762,725
Deferred preneed funeral revenues	0	0
Deferred preneed cemetery revenues	0	0
Deferred tax liability	1,092	1,175
Non-current liabilities held for sale	0
Other liabilities	4,402	4,161
Deferred preneed funeral and cemetery receipts held in trust	0	0
Care trusts’ corpus	0	0
Common stock	212,317	211,047
Other equity	1,113,472	1,020,263
Accumulated other comprehensive income	88,441	111,717
Total common stockholders’ equity	1,414,230	1,343,027
Noncontrolling interests	0	0
Total equity	1,414,230	1,343,027
Total liabilities and equity	4,183,249	3,136,606
Subsidiary Issuer
Condensed Balance Sheet Statements, Captions [Line Items]
Cash and cash equivalents	53,543	0
Receivables, net	442
Inventories, net	0
Current assets held for sale	0
Other	29,133
Total current assets	83,118
Equity in subsidiaries	874,590
Preneed funeral receivables, net and trust investments	0
Preneed cemetery receivables, net and trust investments	0
Cemetery property, at cost	0
Property and equipment, net	15,243
Non-current assets held for sale	0
Deferred charges and other assets	31,807
Goodwill, net	578,578
Cemetery perpetual care trust investments	0
Total assets	1,583,336
Accounts payable and accrued liabilities	46,020
Current maturities of long-term debt	106,939
Current liabilities held for sale	0
Income taxes	560
Total current liabilities	153,519
Long-term debt	270,578
Deferred preneed funeral revenues	0
Deferred preneed cemetery revenues	0
Deferred tax liability	0
Non-current liabilities held for sale	0
Other liabilities	29,944
Deferred preneed funeral and cemetery receipts held in trust	0
Care trusts’ corpus	0
Common stock	85,175
Other equity	1,044,120
Accumulated other comprehensive income	0
Total common stockholders’ equity	1,129,295
Noncontrolling interests	0
Total equity	1,129,295
Total liabilities and equity	1,583,336
Guarantor Subsidiaries
Condensed Balance Sheet Statements, Captions [Line Items]
Cash and cash equivalents	1,898	0
Receivables, net	23,908
Inventories, net	10,822
Current assets held for sale	3,333
Other	34,611
Total current assets	74,572
Equity in subsidiaries	4,546
Preneed funeral receivables, net and trust investments	358,567
Preneed cemetery receivables, net and trust investments	265,346
Cemetery property, at cost	266,168
Property and equipment, net	308,267
Non-current assets held for sale	434,248
Deferred charges and other assets	179,811
Goodwill, net	0
Cemetery perpetual care trust investments	223,903
Total assets	2,115,428
Accounts payable and accrued liabilities	43,706
Current maturities of long-term debt	0
Current liabilities held for sale	1,647
Income taxes	1,427
Total current liabilities	46,780
Long-term debt	89
Deferred preneed funeral revenues	177,097
Deferred preneed cemetery revenues	33,561
Deferred tax liability	99,595
Non-current liabilities held for sale	153,637
Other liabilities	11,116
Deferred preneed funeral and cemetery receipts held in trust	503,667
Care trusts’ corpus	223,903
Common stock	102
Other equity	865,881
Accumulated other comprehensive income	0
Total common stockholders’ equity	865,983
Noncontrolling interests	0
Total equity	865,983
Total liabilities and equity	2,115,428
Non-Guarantor Subsidiaries
Condensed Balance Sheet Statements, Captions [Line Items]
Cash and cash equivalents	89,432	92,708	128,569	170,846
Receivables, net	81,549	101,817
Inventories, net	23,743	24,560
Current assets held for sale	1,236
Other	31,014	59,017
Total current assets	226,974	278,102
Equity in subsidiaries	0	0
Preneed funeral receivables, net and trust investments	1,512,307	1,535,932
Preneed cemetery receivables, net and trust investments	2,035,565	1,826,835
Cemetery property, at cost	1,482,899	1,489,948
Property and equipment, net	1,599,451	1,641,101
Non-current assets held for sale	303,304
Deferred charges and other assets	407,548	401,910
Goodwill, net	1,343,524	1,382,410
Cemetery perpetual care trust investments	1,123,719	1,099,580
Total assets	10,035,291	9,655,818
Accounts payable and accrued liabilities	365,008	353,022
Current maturities of long-term debt	39,423	26,672
Current liabilities held for sale	1,536
Income taxes	4,404	6,892
Total current liabilities	410,371	386,586
Long-term debt	153,270	153,896
Deferred preneed funeral revenues	509,202	536,647
Deferred preneed cemetery revenues	889,594	861,148
Deferred tax liability	518,513	470,023
Non-current liabilities held for sale	274,416
Other liabilities	384,931	395,789
Deferred preneed funeral and cemetery receipts held in trust	2,746,919	2,624,321
Care trusts’ corpus	1,121,971	1,098,752
Common stock	25	24
Other equity	2,937,638	3,016,915
Accumulated other comprehensive income	88,441	111,717
Total common stockholders’ equity	3,026,104	3,128,656
Noncontrolling interests	0	0
Total equity	3,026,104	3,128,656
Total liabilities and equity	10,035,291	9,655,818
Eliminations
Condensed Balance Sheet Statements, Captions [Line Items]
Cash and cash equivalents	0	0	0	0
Receivables, net	0	0
Inventories, net	0	0
Current assets held for sale	0
Other	0	0
Total current assets	0	0
Equity in subsidiaries	(5,011,234)	(3,108,856)
Preneed funeral receivables, net and trust investments	0	0
Preneed cemetery receivables, net and trust investments	0	0
Cemetery property, at cost	0	0
Property and equipment, net	0	0
Non-current assets held for sale	0
Deferred charges and other assets	0	0
Goodwill, net	0	0
Cemetery perpetual care trust investments	0	0
Total assets	(5,011,234)	(3,108,856)
Accounts payable and accrued liabilities	0	0
Current maturities of long-term debt	0	0
Current liabilities held for sale	0
Income taxes	0	0
Total current liabilities	0	0
Long-term debt		0
Deferred preneed funeral revenues	0	0
Deferred preneed cemetery revenues	0	0
Deferred tax liability	0	0
Non-current liabilities held for sale	0
Other liabilities	0	0
Deferred preneed funeral and cemetery receipts held in trust	0	0
Care trusts’ corpus	0	0
Common stock	(85,302)	(24)
Other equity	(4,847,639)	(3,016,915)
Accumulated other comprehensive income	(88,441)	(111,717)
Total common stockholders’ equity	(5,021,382)	(3,128,656)
Noncontrolling interests	10,148	19,800
Total equity	(5,011,234)	(3,108,856)
Total liabilities and equity	$ (5,011,234)	$ (3,108,856)