Blake's remains are among the more than 900 bodies that inhabit Spartanburg County's potter's field, an expanse of grass and unmarked graves west of Croft State Natural Area. His wife and four children had no money to bury Blake, an auto repair shop worker, when he died unexpectedly at age 41 in 1986. Off to the pauper's cemetery he went.

That was before Spartanburg County, like much of the country, switched to cremation only for indigent men and women whose bodies are unclaimed or whose families rank among the poorest of the poor. Unlike neighboring graves, Blake's final resting place is marked, and his family regularly visits to maintain his site.

"He was my husband, and my children's daddy, so we try to keep it nice," said his widow, Evelyn Blake-Heydman. They've added a small grave marker, a white fence and photos of Blake, bleached by the sun. Tiny statues and blue artificial flowers decorate the grave.

Potter's fields, once common, are today often tucked away in remote, forgotten corners of cemeteries or rural fields. No longer popular because of the land needed and cost involved, more counties nationwide are doing away with the government-sponsored graveyards or moving to cremations only. In Cherokee County, where a spat erupted earlier this year over whether the county could bury its indigent residents in a city cemetery, officials are considering switching to cremations.

Newberry County funeral director Doggett Whitaker, past president of the National Funeral Directors Association, said regional differences often determine whether cremation is preferred, but he doubts any significant number of new potter's fields will be born.

"I'm sure you're seeing more cremations simply because cremation is becoming more prevalent in all aspects of funeral service, not just indigent," he said. "The percentage of people choosing cremation over burial is increasing."

The term "potter's field" most likely originates from the New Testament of the Bible in Matthew 27:7, in which 30 pieces of silver returned by Judas were used to buy a potter's field as a graveyard for foreigners. The largest potter's field in the United States is New York City's Hart Island, which counts at least 750,000 burials.

Glenn Miller, general manager of J.F. Floyd Mortuary in Spartanburg and past president of the S.C. Funeral Directors Association, said communities nationwide often established potter's fields on grounds considered inferior to surrounding cemetery land. Oakwood, where trees and briers have encroached on the pauper's area, was once open to all types of burials for city residents, said Miller, who also serves as policy board representative from South Carolina to the National Funeral Directors Association.

"At the time that it was open, basically when there was a situation, an indigent person, the funeral director would just go out and take the next space available," he said. "... There's no record of the burials unless the family marked the grave site; there's no way of knowing exactly where an individual may be placed."

Throughout the Palmetto State, counties and cities have various methods of disposing of the bodies of indigent people. Some bury, some cremate. In some counties, the task is the job of the coroner's office, and in other counties, the duty falls to another department.

"It's just basically county-to-county," said S.C. Funeral Directors Association Executive Director Mike Squires. "... It's the whole gamut."

Some graves at the Spartanburg County potter's field are marked by makeshift metal crosses. Another is a World War II veteran. Patricia Ann Cowart, whose death made news in October 1990 after her husband left her body in their home for several days after she died, also is laid to rest at the cemetery. Her family was impoverished - little food was found in the home, only liquor bottles, alongside little furniture and no refrigerator - and an autopsy found she died of liver disease and also suffered from malnutrition.

The graves at the Spartanburg County potter's field won't receive any company for as long as anyone can foresee. They're boxed in unmarked graves already re-interred in the 1980s, and the nearest new neighbors are the ashes in the underground vault. Miller said the creation of potter's fields now seems to lie in the past because of the expense of property, grounds maintenance and opening and closing the graves.

"I don't think you'll see any future openings of potter's fields," he said.