The Obituary

Style Box

When writing obituaries, be sure to look up the following common AP style entries:

  1. titles, courtesy titles
  2. nicknames
  3. religious affiliations
  4. dates, days of the week
  5. months
  6. punctuation
  7. addresses, City, State
  8. composition titles
  9. time, time element, midnight/noon
  10. include/comprise

   Obituaries (aka the "obit") provide the last statement on a person's life, and are one of two times a person's name is guaranteed to be in print. A death in a small community is akin to a death in the family. In such communities, everyone holds celebrity status and a death touches nearly everyone. Although there may be few close mourners, people rarely die wholly forgotten.

   Smaller papers sometimes run an obit free-of-charge, but many larger papers make a per-word charge for obituary notices, much as they do for classified advertisements. These charges become part of the funeral costs.

   Editors usually assign obits to a new reporter, as this gives them an opportunity to become acquainted with the writer's particular talents and abilities. Unfortunately, the new reporter may view writing obituaries as a dreaded task. Yet the good reporter will find information to make the obit come to life by finding information via telephoning or visiting relatives or others mentioned in the notice. The new reporter must learn accuracy and sensitivity to people.

   As in regular news writing, the obituary writer should remember three things:
  1. the obit should be based on fact, not rumor or gossip
  2. some relationship should be indicated between the facts
  3. the relationship of these facts to the public should be presented.

   The first premise requires the reporter to base the obit on facts. This would seem obvious, you MUST verify the reported death before publication. When hoaxes see print, a newspaper's credibility collapses. If a caller informs you that a relative or close friend has died, ask which funeral home is handling the arrangements and contact the FUNERAL HOME. All obituaries should be verified through a funeral home.

   To ease the reporter's job, those assigned to write an "obit" should begin with the third premise — determining the person's importance to the community. This can usually be ascertained by looking through the morgue — not the building where the body is kept, but the newspaper's morgue where back issues are kept. News outlets usually keep a running file of pertinent issues concerning prominent individuals. However, be sure to check the information through the funeral home as the deceased is not available to defend himself against his files, which may contain an error that was never corrected!

   The second premise dictates relationships should be evident between facts. As timeliness is an essential news value, the article's lede paragraph usually mentions the last episode in a person's life. In general, any obit lede should contain the deceased's full name, cause of death and details of when, where and under what conditions the death occurred.

   Some papers will mention the deceased's place of residence, but this practice is not as common any more as thieves may use the information to determine when to ransack an empty house. This could cause additional grief to a bereaved family. If addresses are used, they should be double-checked for accuracy.

FORMAT
   Newspapers sometimes have their own styles and form for obituaries; e.g. The New York Times  has a set two-sentence obit lede:

"John Lee Hooker, the bluesman whose stark, one-chord boogies were some of the feistiest and most desolate songs of the 20th century, died yesterday in his sleep at his home in Los Altos, Calif., said his agent, Mike Kappus. He was 83."
   Background material follows the lede, including any official capacity the person may have filled or peculiar hobbies the person had. No biographical details should be considered insignificant. If the deceased has been prominent politically, socially or in a business way, other facts will be pertinent. It then becomes proper to get place of birth, parentage, early education, date of marriage, and a few points about the success of the deceased in his or her field of employment. In general, the more prominent an individual, the larger the obituary.

   Follow background material with a listing of survivors, mentioned in a logical order of relationship; e.g. spouse, children, parents (if applicable) and siblings. All names MUST be spelled correctly. If more than two survivors exist, use the terminology "Survivors include ..." Generally, newspapers do not specifically name grandchildren, special friends, cousins, etc. unless there are very few other survivors.

   Finally, end the obit with the funeral arrangements and place of interment. If the body is to be transported after local funeral services, a paragraph should indicate who's in charge of local arrangements.

   In the case of prominent persons (e.g. the President, prominent national officials, the governor and municipal authorities), the reporter may be told to write a "canned" obit, i.e. an obituary notice written in advance and kept on file.

    A practiced reporter captures the essence of the celebrity's life and assesses their place in history. The reporter assigned to prepare a canned obit will practice the same fundamentals used in reporting on a private individual, but it requires more tact since the person is still living.

   Obituaries should be written from a dispassionate, objective point of view, i.e. focus on the facts. While a reporter attempts to avoid derogatory remarks about the deceased, they may be necessary to produce an adequate story. While not bound by the proverb "Concerning the dead, nothing but the good," the reporter should NEVER express any personal opinions about the dead.

   A few other things to note about obituaries:

  • the obit provides one of the few times a lede begins with a person's name, which is only natural as readers want to know who  died.
  • a person can die unexpectedly, but everybody dies suddenly.
  • do not mention the dead person as "the deceased," nor claim survivors include a "beloved" spouse — how can you be positively certain that the spouse was "beloved?"
  • use "buried" instead of "interred" unless they are cremated (a fact usually omitted for tact).
  • always use "died" — never use "passed away," "passed to their rewards," "succumbed," "left us," "went to the great rest home in the sky," etc.
   The following examples provide insights on obituaries. We'll start with the obit of a prominent person, then compare that with a feature obituary and straight obituaries of my Grandpa, Papaw and Mama. What's missing in each of the straight obituaries?

If you don't understand something in this Web note, please e-mail Dr. Sitton.

İRonald W. Sitton 2007
Revised 062709 — http://www.uamont.edu/FacultyWeb/sitton/crz/ntro/obit.html