Ellen McGarr excelled at quitting, and hers is a livelier read than the usually dry family-placed death notices. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/idahostatesman/obituary.aspx?n=ellen-mcgarr&pid=150429149&fhid=10163
Please note that the comment about dark meat in her chicken salad is as much a myth as all Southerners drink sweet tea.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
NYTimes runs 112-year-old obit correction
Not just the oldest but among the longest cx I've ever seen, and really interesting.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Jim Sheeler, Roy Peter Clark and Mallory Tenore chat about stories of life and death
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| Jim Sheeler |
You can still check out what was covered by visiting the Poynter chat on How to Report & Write Stories of Life, Death.
Live chat: How to report & write stories about life & death
Jim Sheeler, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his “Final Salute” series, and writing coach Roy Peter Clark will chat about writing stories of life and death today at 3 p.m. ET. Click here to participate in the conversation. Twitter users can also ask questions ahead of time using the hashtag #poyntertweets.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Lieutenant-Colonel Jeffery Williams (1920-2011)
A swell obituary in The Telegraph of a Canadian military historian who was the last member of the paper's obituarists to have served in the Second World War.
Friday, May 13, 2011
The 2011 Grimmies, a.k.a. Society of Professional Obituary Writers Awards, Have Been Presented
And the winners are:
The 2011 SPOW Lifetime Achievement in Obituary Writing Award was presented to Larken Bradley, who writes obits for the West Marin Citizen in the San Francisco area and does custom obits for clients, at an awards luncheon at Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., on May 13, 2011. Her website is: http://obituarywriters.com/.
The list of official SPOW Award recipients are as follows:
Best Body of Work in Obituary Writing (Long Form): Philip Fine, Globe and Mail.
Best Body of Work in Obituary Writing (Short Form): Maureen O'Donnell, Chicago Sun Times.
Best Obit about an Internationally Known Figure: Sandra Martin, Globe and Mail, for her Jackie Burroughs obit.
Best Obituary Tribute: Tom Hawthorn, Globe and Mail, for his Gene Kiniski obit.
Best Obituary (Short Form) about a Well-Known Regional Figure: Maureen O'Donnell, Chicago Sun Times, for her Joseph Sterling obit.
Best Obituary (Long Form) about a Well-Known Regional Figure: Amy Rabideau Silvers, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, for her Lorrie Otto obituary.
Best Obituary (Short Form) about an Average Joe: Amy Rabideau Silvers, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, for her Evelyn Fefer obituary.
Best Obituary (Long Form) about an Average Joe: Andrew Meacham, St. Petersburg Times, for his Neal Alan Smith obit.
Winners of the People's Picks, an online poll that is open to the public but has no bearing on the outcome of the official Grimmies judging, are:
Body of Work (Long Form): Ron Csillag, Globe and Mail;
Body of Work (Short Form): Mark Zaborney, Toledo Blade.
Internationally Known Figure: Dave Hoekstra, Chicago Sun Times, for his Solomon Burke obit.
Best Obituary Tribute: Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times, for his Tony Curtis obituary.
Best Obituary (Long Form) about an Average Joe: Ron Csillag, Globe and Mail, for his Fred Huffman obit.
Best Obituary (Short Form) about an Average Joe: Maureen O'Donnell, Chicago Sun Times, for her obituary for The DeMuros.
Best Obituary (Long Form) about a Well-Known Regional Figure: Maureen O'Donnell, Chicago Sun Times, for her Jim Cole obit.
Best Obituary (Short Form) about a Well-Known Regiona Figure: Maureen O'Donnell, Chcago Sun Times, for her Joe Vito obituary.
 |
| Larken Bradley |
The list of official SPOW Award recipients are as follows:
Best Body of Work in Obituary Writing (Long Form): Philip Fine, Globe and Mail.
Best Body of Work in Obituary Writing (Short Form): Maureen O'Donnell, Chicago Sun Times.
Best Obit about an Internationally Known Figure: Sandra Martin, Globe and Mail, for her Jackie Burroughs obit.
Best Obituary Tribute: Tom Hawthorn, Globe and Mail, for his Gene Kiniski obit.
Best Obituary (Short Form) about a Well-Known Regional Figure: Maureen O'Donnell, Chicago Sun Times, for her Joseph Sterling obit.
Best Obituary (Long Form) about a Well-Known Regional Figure: Amy Rabideau Silvers, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, for her Lorrie Otto obituary.
Best Obituary (Short Form) about an Average Joe: Amy Rabideau Silvers, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, for her Evelyn Fefer obituary.
Best Obituary (Long Form) about an Average Joe: Andrew Meacham, St. Petersburg Times, for his Neal Alan Smith obit.
Winners of the People's Picks, an online poll that is open to the public but has no bearing on the outcome of the official Grimmies judging, are:
Body of Work (Long Form): Ron Csillag, Globe and Mail;
Body of Work (Short Form): Mark Zaborney, Toledo Blade.
Internationally Known Figure: Dave Hoekstra, Chicago Sun Times, for his Solomon Burke obit.
Best Obituary Tribute: Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times, for his Tony Curtis obituary.
Best Obituary (Long Form) about an Average Joe: Ron Csillag, Globe and Mail, for his Fred Huffman obit.
Best Obituary (Short Form) about an Average Joe: Maureen O'Donnell, Chicago Sun Times, for her obituary for The DeMuros.
Best Obituary (Long Form) about a Well-Known Regional Figure: Maureen O'Donnell, Chicago Sun Times, for her Jim Cole obit.
Best Obituary (Short Form) about a Well-Known Regiona Figure: Maureen O'Donnell, Chcago Sun Times, for her Joe Vito obituary.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Legacy.com announces partnership with Society of Professional Obituary Writers to showcase obits for everyday people
Press release from Legacy.com:
LEADING MEMORIAL SITE PARTNERS WITH OBITUARY WRITERS TO SPOTLIGHT OBITS FOR “ORDINARY” PEOPLE
With help from the Society of Professional Obituary Writers, Legacy.com shares newspaper obituaries for teachers, homemakers and others
EVANSTON, Ill. – There’s no shortage of places to read the life stories of celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson. But too often the obituaries of less well-known people go unnoticed. A new feature launched by online memorial leader Legacy.com seeks to change that by highlighting obituaries for ordinary people who led extraordinary lives – or who simply had exceptionally interesting obituaries.
Through a newly-formed partnership with the Society of Professional Obituary Writers, Legacy.com – which hosts the obituary sections of 900-plus newspapers in the United States and around the world – is showcasing stories not only of movie stars and pop singers, but also of teachers, restaurant servers, homemakers and more.
“We’re delighted to share with our millions of users some of the amazing life stories that are published in newspapers every day,” said Legacy.com President and CEO Stopher Bartol. “By combining our resources with those of the nation’s leading obituary writers, we not only drive traffic to newspaper obituaries, but also help satisfy the appetite of readers for interesting stories and the desire by families for their loved ones’ legacies to be remembered.”
Examples include:
*A devoted married couple who died four days apart, 65 years after they first met.
*A schoolteacher who, at 98, recalled the names of students she had taught half a century earlier. (They remembered her, too.)
*A popular parking meter prosecutor. (Yes, you read that right.)
The highlighted obituaries, regularly added to a Legacy.com blog called The Obit Report that links to the newspaper where the obituary was originally published, are often inspirational – and occasionally funny.
For example, the family of Rose Davis provided a lighthearted accounting of her birth and life, as well as their eventual reunion with her in heaven: We miss you dearly and know that we'll meet again. But, not too soon.
The Obit Report initiative was partly the result of a report by the Medill School of Journalism that found “people interested in obituaries – compelling stories about noteworthy lives – are a sizeable, highly engaged potential audience.”
“The Medill team zeroed in on the fact that people enjoy reading stories about people, whether they’re famous or not,” Bartol said, noting that obituaries are among the most visited sections of newspapers. “Given that Legacy.com publishes thousands of newspaper obituaries each day and SPOW is comprised of award-winning journalists who are passionate about obituaries, the partnership positions us well to identify great content and share it with a broader audience.”
Said Alana Baranick, SPOW director: “The Society of Professional Obituary Writers is delighted that Legacy.com has made The Obit Report a forum on which to spotlight obits about ordinary people who lived extraordinary lives. We're sharing life stories that are beautifully or cleverly written by professional journalists as well as family-prepared obits that capture our attention for a variety of reasons.”
The Obit Report is currently available at www.legacy.com and via Legacy.com’s Facebook page.
ABOUT LEGACY.COM
Founded in 1998, Legacy.com is the world’s most timely and comprehensive resource for online obituaries and the undisputed leader in Web-based memorialization. With 18 million unique visitors each month, the Legacy.com domain is among the 100 most visited on the Internet.
Legacy.com’s network includes thousands of newspapers and funeral homes in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia. By making interactive memorial content accessible directly via the websites of newspapers and funeral homes, Legacy.com helps people expand the ways in which they can express condolences and share remembrances of loved ones. A privately held company, Legacy.com is headquartered in Evanston, Ill.
ABOUT SPOW
The Society of Professional Obituary Writers is a group of journalists who write, produce and present obituaries for newspapers and other news entities. SPOW spotlights the art of obituary writing while helping obituary writers improve their craft.
LEADING MEMORIAL SITE PARTNERS WITH OBITUARY WRITERS TO SPOTLIGHT OBITS FOR “ORDINARY” PEOPLE
With help from the Society of Professional Obituary Writers, Legacy.com shares newspaper obituaries for teachers, homemakers and others
EVANSTON, Ill. – There’s no shortage of places to read the life stories of celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson. But too often the obituaries of less well-known people go unnoticed. A new feature launched by online memorial leader Legacy.com seeks to change that by highlighting obituaries for ordinary people who led extraordinary lives – or who simply had exceptionally interesting obituaries.
Through a newly-formed partnership with the Society of Professional Obituary Writers, Legacy.com – which hosts the obituary sections of 900-plus newspapers in the United States and around the world – is showcasing stories not only of movie stars and pop singers, but also of teachers, restaurant servers, homemakers and more.
“We’re delighted to share with our millions of users some of the amazing life stories that are published in newspapers every day,” said Legacy.com President and CEO Stopher Bartol. “By combining our resources with those of the nation’s leading obituary writers, we not only drive traffic to newspaper obituaries, but also help satisfy the appetite of readers for interesting stories and the desire by families for their loved ones’ legacies to be remembered.”
Examples include:
*A devoted married couple who died four days apart, 65 years after they first met.
*A schoolteacher who, at 98, recalled the names of students she had taught half a century earlier. (They remembered her, too.)
*A popular parking meter prosecutor. (Yes, you read that right.)
The highlighted obituaries, regularly added to a Legacy.com blog called The Obit Report that links to the newspaper where the obituary was originally published, are often inspirational – and occasionally funny.
For example, the family of Rose Davis provided a lighthearted accounting of her birth and life, as well as their eventual reunion with her in heaven: We miss you dearly and know that we'll meet again. But, not too soon.
The Obit Report initiative was partly the result of a report by the Medill School of Journalism that found “people interested in obituaries – compelling stories about noteworthy lives – are a sizeable, highly engaged potential audience.”
“The Medill team zeroed in on the fact that people enjoy reading stories about people, whether they’re famous or not,” Bartol said, noting that obituaries are among the most visited sections of newspapers. “Given that Legacy.com publishes thousands of newspaper obituaries each day and SPOW is comprised of award-winning journalists who are passionate about obituaries, the partnership positions us well to identify great content and share it with a broader audience.”
Said Alana Baranick, SPOW director: “The Society of Professional Obituary Writers is delighted that Legacy.com has made The Obit Report a forum on which to spotlight obits about ordinary people who lived extraordinary lives. We're sharing life stories that are beautifully or cleverly written by professional journalists as well as family-prepared obits that capture our attention for a variety of reasons.”
The Obit Report is currently available at www.legacy.com and via Legacy.com’s Facebook page.
ABOUT LEGACY.COM
Founded in 1998, Legacy.com is the world’s most timely and comprehensive resource for online obituaries and the undisputed leader in Web-based memorialization. With 18 million unique visitors each month, the Legacy.com domain is among the 100 most visited on the Internet.
Legacy.com’s network includes thousands of newspapers and funeral homes in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia. By making interactive memorial content accessible directly via the websites of newspapers and funeral homes, Legacy.com helps people expand the ways in which they can express condolences and share remembrances of loved ones. A privately held company, Legacy.com is headquartered in Evanston, Ill.
ABOUT SPOW
The Society of Professional Obituary Writers is a group of journalists who write, produce and present obituaries for newspapers and other news entities. SPOW spotlights the art of obituary writing while helping obituary writers improve their craft.
Thursday, May 05, 2011
NYTimes obit writer talks about Bin Laden obit
Sounds like it was barely updated over a decade ... I bet this isn't one of those where the subject cooperates.
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