Another unlikely obit-writing casualty of newspaper reorganization

Obitland got a kick in the teeth yesterday (Aug. 18, 2008) when award-winning obituary writer Kay Powell of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution informed colleagues and Fobits (obit fans) around the world that she would no longer be the obit diva of the AJC. (Clarification: Her colleagues are also her fans.)

Kay wrote:
As of Sept. 2, I'll no longer be writing obits for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
In the AJC's second reorganization in a year, I'm moving to the Cobb County bureau to report on communities.

Many journalists would consider this is a nod to Kay's extraordinary interviewing, researching and storytelling talents. She's such a fabulous reporter and writer that her editors want to reward her by moving her out of obits and into "live" news.

But Kay relished her role as obit writer, obits editor and mentor of other obit writers, both at the AJC and worldwide.

In her note to us she wrote: The happiest part of my journalism career has been writing obits and developing friendships with each of you.

We mourn her "passing" from obits to community news.

As the death of a sibling makes one rethink one's own mortality, the inconceivable departure of Kay (and of Gerry Hostetler, who took a buyout from the Charlotte Observer in July) from the death beat prompts those of us who write obits for newspaper editorial departments to wonder, "Will I be next?"

I'm too stunned to say much more than that.

Do women live longer than men?

Back in the 1980s - and possibly after that - comedian Alan King did a comedy routine in which he cited several obits for old guys who were survived by their wives to support his view that women live longer than men.

Check it out (with apologies for King's politicallly incorrect and somewhat salty language).

All the Way Dead?

I've written my own obituary.

Every six months or so, I update the text and save it on the hard drive of my laptop. In the event of my death, my mate will post it on my Website and e-mail it to everyone in my address book. I've also requested that he publish the obit on The Blog of Death; if I have my way, it'll be the last post to appear there.

Since I'll be dead when my obit goes live, I won't have the opportunity to read the reactions to my demise. I won't know who left behind loving tributes or who simply didn't give a damn. Wouldn't it be neat to have that chance, to know how you were perceived by those around you?

Some people know, because they faked their own death. Here's a great list of 10 Dead People Who Weren't Really Dead.

Obit for a namesake

This was in Creative Loafing, an alt publication in Tampa Bay. Someone died who had the same name as the writer, Alex Pickett. He wanted to know more. I thought it was a cool story.

http://tampa.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A479980

A 58-year-old guy who had no survivors

http://www.tampabay.com/news/obituaries/article699350.ece

First post on this forum. Hope it works the way I want it to. Anyway, this is the kind of subject I'd been hoping to find someday. Previously I'd queried funeral homes on elderly people who have outlived all of their survivors. But this guy was much younger. By the way, I could detect no criminal record. Andy

Another missed opportunity

I don't know about y'all, but when I saw the photo in my local paper this morning of Ronnie Wood with his new girlfriend, a 19-year-old Russian waitress, I made a mental note to start collecting some background materials. Now this from the PA, suggesting that we may have to wait a few years:

(story truncated to prevent copyright violations)

Rolling Stone Wood goes into rehab

PA

Ronnie Wood has entered rehab, a spokeswoman for the star said today. The Rolling Stone is "seeking help" with his battle with alcohol.

Wood recently fled to a bolt-hole in Ireland with a Russian cocktail waitress.

His spokeswoman said: "Following Ronnie's continued battle with alcohol he has entered a period of rehab.

Amusing article on what to print in the paper

Originally posted by Amelia in alt.obituaries

http://www.leader-vindicator.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19849559=2758=461_id=572980=6

Life and death of a 12-year-old

I tend to shy away from writing obituaries for children. Summing up a short life generally amounts to a couple of biographical facts (birthplace, school, scouts, favorite toy) and a lot of sentimentality.

When I received a call from a reader suggesting we do a human interest story on Demetrius Smith, who was on the planet for only 12 years, I balked. But to give the caller, who was not related to the child, a fair shake, I asked him to send me a copy of the obituary from the funeral program.

I was intrigued. Demetrius lived most of his life with death, having his first bout with cancer as a toddler, and yet I could see that he packed a whole lot of living into those 12 years.

I like to claim that I strive for diversity in my weekly obit feature, A Life Story. My subjects come from all walks of life, ethnic backgrounds, occupations, lifestyles, religious and political persuasions, and, yes, ages.

And yet I had never written A Life Story for anyone under 30.

Demetrius' story was published in The Plain Dealer today, July 14, 2008. The story with photos and a video of Demetrius playing the piano appears on the paper's newsblog.

I was inspired by what I learned about this kid. Judging from the comments that have been made online in these first few hours, it's safe to say the Demetrius' short life has inspired lots of people.

And to think, I almost rejected the idea of writing his story.

2009 Society of Professional Obituary Writers Convention News

The Residence Inn Charlotte Uptown is the site of the 2009 Society of Professional Obituary Writers Convention, which will be held April 23-25, 2009, in Charlotte, N.C.

Read more about that at the Obitwriters.org convention page.

Would you like to speak at the convention?

What topics would you like to see addressed?

What speakers would you like to hear?

Would you like to volunteer to help with planning and executing the event?

Post your comments on this blog or write to us at convention@obitwriters.org.

Death: Stairway to Heaven or Highway to Hell?

If the Aussies are doing it, is America far behind? Not at all. We're increasingly adding personal elements to funerals and memorial services—or inhumations and celebrations of life. The Associated Press reported the contemporary funeral song trend in Australia. Our resident Australian by marriage, Joanne West, confirms the trend to oddities.

AP reports from Adelaide that Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" and AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" haven't made it into the top 10 funeral songs but are crowding "Amazing Grace" and "Abide With Me." Perennial favorites are Frank Sinatra's "My Way" and Louis Armstrong's version of "Wonderful World."

Myself, I've long designated—long before the Broadway show—Peter Allen's "Quite Please, There's a Lady on Stage" for my service or visitation, preferably with mourners joining in a rousing sing along on the chorus. Allen was, of course, Australian.

Read the AP story in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution at http://www.ajc.com/search/content/shared-gen/ap/Feature_Stories/ODD_Australia_Funeral_Hits.html

Monster.com founder to challenge Legacy.com

In his story Monster founder sets sights on online obituaries, AP Business Writer Seth Sutel reports that Jeff Taylor, who "helped set off a tectonic shift in recruitment advertising by founding Monster.com, one of the first online companies to challenge a big profit source of newspapers" 14 years ago, plans to compete with newspapers for advertising dollars for online obituaries.

Sutel writes: Taylor believes that may be changing as more people live far from the places they were born and grew up. Taylor hopes his new site, Tributes.com, will fill that broader need.

In the article, Sutel cites such other online obit sites as Legacy.com and Memory-Of.com, which offer obits in various forms with guest books for a fee.

The article also makes several other points. Read it.

Society of Professional Obituary Writers membership criteria

The Society of Professional Obituary Writers Interim Board has adopted a mission statement and criteria for membership, associate membership and dues.

Membership details are available on the SPOW Web site. Check the Membership page. The mission statement is posted under About Us.

Be watching for more details on the 2009 SPOW Convention in the next few days.

New Canadian radio program features documentary obituaries

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. has launched a weekly radio program dedicated to documentary obituaries of "the extraordinary life stories of deceivingly ordinary Canadians."

The host is the renowned actor Gordon Pinsent. The first episode aired on June 24 featuring a look at the life of a street person known as Midget Mike.

For more information and to listen to the first episode, check out: www.cbc.ca/radiosummer/thelateshow.

cheers
tom hawthorn
victoria, b.c., canada

International TV POV on Obits

The Listening Post, a U.K.-based company that produces programs for Al Jazeera English, presented a segment about writing obituaries from an international point of view on a program that aired June 20, 2008.

The producers included comments from experts in the field, including Steve Miller, New York Sun obits editor, Wall Street Journal "Remembrances" writer and contributor to the Obituary Forum.

Don't be alarmed by the title of the program: The Trial of Al Jazeera English. The link provided above is for the second half of the show, which is about obituary writing.

Notes from the 10th Great Obituary Writers Conference

Perhaps the blogsters might have some interest in a report of sorts from the recent Tenth Great Obits Conference in Las Vegas, NM, held June 13 to 15. Following are some items from my notes.

The assemblage was somewhat smaller in numbers than in some recent years. It was hard to keep count, however the official attendance roster showed 15 official registrants. There were a few more who had not probably not officially registered. I think those were spouses, significant others, etc. who mostly did not sit in on many of the sessions. Though lacking in size this was a group that quickly bonded into a common purpose, consideration of the art of the obituary.

Aside from many familiar faces from past conferences, the Tenth Great attracted several new folks with interesting backgrounds and purposes. There were two film makers from the U.K. who are looking into bringing Marilyn Johnson's delightful "The Dead Beat" to the screen. A professor from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign presented a challenging, discussion provoking paper on the ethical implications of obituaries for animals. A representative of a biographical research company in California added that perspective to our discussions. A young former public radio broadcaster, now a graduate student in creative nonfiction writing, educated us about the application of the latter craft to the obituarists' art.
I was personally pleased to meet a colleague from the librarian ranks, just recently retired from the science library at UC Berkeley. We library folk, though few in number, appreciate the importance of obits.

Some highlights from the formal presentations follow. On day one, Professor Jane Desmond made the aforementioned talk about obituaries for animals. I must say that this talk triggered one of the most lively, and at times emotional, discussions in my memory from the Great Obit Writers conferences. You just had to have been there. We all completed questionnaires for Dr. Desmond for her use in furthering her research efforts. It was good to see our old friend Trudi Hahn Pickett back at the conference table. Now relocated to New Mexico, Trudi formerly wrote obits in Minnesota and attended previous conferences before leaving the craft to marry and join her husband in the Southwest. Trudi presented a personal case study in the writing of a family composed obit, a news obituary, and a personal eulogy, all three involving the passing of her husband six months ago. Emotional though it was for all concerned, it was a remarkable sharing experience for us. Highlights from day two included a visit and presentation from Jim Sheeler our Pulitzer winning comrade from conferences past and member of the IAO Hall of Fame.
Jim began his presentation with selections from the Spoon River Anthology collection of epitaph/poems, brought to YouTube video by high school students and accompanied by tracks from alt-country singer Richard Buckner. Jim followed that with video highlights that accompanied his recent book "Final Salute" about his work with surviving families of soldiers fallen in the Afghan and Iraqi war zones. The final presentation, that being the award to the newest IAO Hall of Fame winner, was to have been made by Kay Powell of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Kay was stopped mid-way by IAO founder Carolyn Gilbert, who took over the floor to announce that Kay herself was the new inductee. Bravo! Congratulations to Kay!

Some bits 'n pieces to wrap up . . . as part of a response to the recent Boston Globe column about the IAO - SPOW split, Carolyn Gilbert verbally countered several of the claims presented in the piece. She also indicated that the annual calendar of the numbered Great Obituary Writers conferences may change somewhat so as not to come so near in time to the SPOW meetings.
Locations will likely continue to be in somewhat off the beaten path venues. Efforts remain underway to identify a location to place the archives of the IAO, which now fill five filing cabinets. We had somewhat of an echo of the famous Ronald Reagan death bulletin pandemonium when Jim Sheeler, arriving at the conference, brought the news flash about Tim Russert's sudden death. I announced the initiation of an "Obituaries in Education Interest Group" which will remain associated with the IAO and will serve as a link for folks who use obituaries in an educational setting. Please watch this blog and the IAO's Obitpage.com website for further information.

Wish you could have been there!

TH

A Window Into the Past

The current writer of the Dear Abby column (her daughter actually) recently tackled the topic of obituary photographs. Some readers want to see more modern pictures of the deceased. Others prefer pictures from the past. If you had to choose one to accompany your news obit, which would you publish?

Obituary writers: Accomplices in Crime???

In the previous Obituary Forum post - "Obituarists Abet Second-Story Man!" - Steve Miller shared a story from The Republican about a Massachusetts man who admitted robbing several families while they were attending the funerals of loved ones.

Pam Vetter, a certified funeral celebrant who pens obit-related articles and obituaries for her clients for Los Angeles-area publications, sent along a story about a similar case. This one happened in Missouri.

In her June 9, 2008, American Chronicle piece, Funeral Day Burglar Convicted: Thieving from Those Who are Grieving and Its Effect on Paid Death Notices and Obituaries, Pam suggests that publicity surrounding such cases might make families reluctant to share information about the dearly departed for reporter-written or paid obits.

Obituarists Abet Second-Story Man!

Judge gets tough on funeral burglar

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

By FRED CONTRADA

fcontrada@repub.com

NORTHAMPTON - A Hampshire Superior Court judge postponed sentencing yesterday for a man who admitted robbing several families while they were attending the funerals of loved ones.

Thomas J. Walker, 20, of 131 North St., Palmer, pleaded guilty to four counts of breaking and entering in the daytime to commit a felony, four counts of larceny over $250, and two counts of larceny of a firearm.

During his plea on Monday, Walker acknowledged that he studied obituaries, noted the times of certain funerals, and broke into the homes of the families of the deceased, knowing that they would be at the services.

Three of the thefts occurred in Belchertown, and one in South Hadley. All of the break-ins took place last July.

The court was told that Walker stole jewelry, money, computers, and other items from the homes, as well as two handguns. Police matched a fingerprint at one of the crime scenes to Walker, and also observed him on a surveillance videotape using one of the bank cards he stole.

Police stopped him while he was driving, and found some of the stolen property from South Hadley in his car, according to prosecutors. Many of the other items were recovered at his home.

Defense lawyer John W. Drake and prosecutor Frank E. Flannery had recommended a sentence of three to five years in prison in exchange for Walker's guilty plea, but Judge Bertha D. Josephson indicated that she would mete out an additional 10 years' probation, calling his actions despicable.

When a judge exceeds the recommended sentence, defendants are allowed to withdraw their guilty plea and seek a trial. Josephson gave Walker a day in which to reconsider.

In court yesterday, Walker said he would accept the sentence.

Josephson scheduled the sentencing for July 28 so that the probation department can prepare a pre-sentencing report. Drake told the judge that Walker developed a drug habit after his father, a former state Highway Department worker, was injured and became addicted to Oxycontin.

Use of the painkiller spread through the family, and Walker eventually became addicted to heroin, Drake said.

Tim Russert

Surely you know by now that Tim Russert, Washington bureau chief for NBC News and moderator of "Meet the Press," died of a heart attack Friday, June 13, while working at the NBC studios in Washington, D.C.

He was only 58.

Print and broadcast accounts of his life and death are too numerous to list. Here are a few of them.

Naturally, the NBC/MSNBC and Meet the Press folks gave him the biggest send-off.

His hometown paper, the Buffalo News, ran several articles and columns for Buffalo's Own.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer also claimed Russert as a local guy because he graduated from John Carroll University and Cleveland State University's Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.

Tom Shales penned An Appreciation for Russert in The Washington Post. The Post also provided many but nowhere near all of the links to other articles that have been written or broadcast about Russert since Friday.

Have you read, watched or listened to any Russert obits that you'd like to share?

Obituary conferences are about life, not death.

Brenda Bolinger wrote an article titled Obituary conference showed obit writers fascinated with life lived for the Claremont-Courier (Claremont, Calif.).

She wrote it from her perspective of having attended the Portland obit writers workshop in May and a Numbered Great Obituary Writers Conference in Las Vegas, N.M., in 2003.

In her multilayered answer to the question - What in the world happens at an obituary writers conference? - Brenda provides a report on the Portland gathering and her commentary on obit writers conferences in general.

She writes that the conferences are not depressing, but Invigorating, fascinating, inspiring, challenging, moving and even laugh-inducing, but not depressing.

Judging from the frequency with which I was asked this question, or a variation thereof, I believe there is a misconception about obituary writers. The prevailing perspective is that we are mired in death. How far from the truth.

We are, instead, mired in life. We intentionally, vigorously steep ourselves in life, in history, in relationships and personalities. Far from being attracted to this profession out of a morbid or melancholic obsession, obituary writers find the allure of life keeps them rooted in the profession.

I think she's got something there.

We're waiting for reports on the 10th Great that was held the weekend of June 13.

(One point of clarification: Brenda refers to the Portland workshop as the Society of Professional Obituary Writers "first annual conference." Although the Portland event provided the opportunity for SPOW's first meeting, the workshop/conference was put on independently by Amy Starke and Joan Harvey of The Oregonian.)

The 10th Great

The 10th Great Obituary Writers' International Conference will be held this weekend - June 12-14, 2008 - in Las Vegas, N.M.

Speakers and topics have been posted at Obitpage.com.

The speakers listed are:

Dr. Jane Desmond, a professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, co-founder and director of the International Forum for U.S. Studies and president of the International American Studies Association;

Trudi Hahn Pickett, retired Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune obituary writer and authority on all things military;

Jim Sheeler, scholar-in-residence at the University of Colorado, author of "Final Salute" and "Obit," and International Association of Obituarists Hall of Fame inductee, who won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing while reporting for the Rocky Mountain News.

Kay Powell, obits editor at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and winner of two 2008 Society of Professional Obituary Writers Awards, is slated for the presentation of the 2008 IAO Hall of Fame recipient.

IAO founder Carolyn Gilbert, the creator, host and emcee of the Great Obituary Writers conferences, will wrap up the event Saturday. Her subject: What Lies Ahead?

We welcome reports on the conference.

Obit stirs controversy

I wrote an obituary for former Cleveland building commissioner Carlton Rush (published in The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio, on June 6, 2008) that the family and some readers called disgraceful, insensitive, unacceptable, tabloid journalism.

Here's how Ted Diadiun, the PD's reader rep, addressed the controversy in his June 8 column titled Headline on Carlton Rush's obituary did a disservice to his accomplished life.

Ted wrote: While Mr. Rush was building commissioner in Cleveland in the late 1970s, he became embroiled in what was widely known as the "carnival kickback case" -- an accusation that then-Cleveland City Council President George Forbes and others had accepted payoffs from a local carnival operator. Mr. Rush, Forbes and 16 others were indicted on a variety of charges. It was a story that dominated Cleveland's front pages and local television for much of the summer of 1979.

Mr. Rush won a motion to have his case separated from the others and was granted a separate trial. The charges against him were ultimately dismissed. In what appeared to be a case of prosecutorial overreach, the other defendants were acquitted.

After Carlton Rush died last Sunday, reporter Alana Baranick, the wise and sensitive woman who writes most of our obituaries, faced a decision: Could she write an honest obituary about a man whose life and accomplishments clearly rated one, without including the carnival case?

An obituary is a news story, not simply a tribute, and in summing up an overall worthy life, it's not easy to decide how much weight to give the bumpy spots.

"He was too well known and too important to the community to not do an obituary on him," she said, "but the event was too major to not include. Even though it was a long time ago, it was a daily happening in the news for more than a year."

I started the obit with information about Rush serving as the building commissioner, working as an electrical engineer and executive with the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co., and developing energy-efficient, environmentally friendly homes.

I deliberately inserted the carnival kickback case several paragraphs into the obit, so copy editors would not include it in the headline. No such luck.

Not only did the headline focus on that case, it indicated Rush was "acquitted." It didn't say the indictment was "dismissed."

It's odd how words take on connotations. Nowadays when we say someone was "acquitted," many people take it to mean that the person got away with something. They don't even consider that a person might have been innocent.

Likewise, many folks equate "indictment" with "guilt."

I hope those people consider this little bit of history about Cleveland's carnival kickback case and realize that just because someone in authority (prosecutor, police, politician) makes an accusation, it doesn't mean it's true.

I'm sure other obit writers have had to deal with similar issues. Please share your thoughts.

I hope the Rush family and their friends will read this and comment as well.

First ever blogging experience

Just checking: am I really here with you all?

Onion headline? Nay, our frigid neighbor to the north.

Activist began as angry young man and retired as 'an angry old man'

New look for Obit mag

Check out the new Obit magazine at www.obit-mag.com. It’s been re-envisioned, re-engineered, reincarnated, the Obit newsletter reports.

Readers can now:

Read and comment on Visions of Heaven.

Look up your birth date in Died on the Same Day and discover who checked out on the day you checked in.

Relive historical moments through video and photography in Final Cut and Photo Finish.

Join a discussion about favorite graveyards.

Learn about the team behind Obit.

Register to receive Obit’s eNewsletter and to stay in touch with Obit.

Here's more from the Obit team:

Whether centered on a person, a place, an object or an idea, life’s constant change presents an opportunity for examination, discussion and celebration. Obit brings you a forum for ideas and opinions about life, death, and transition that you will find nowhere else.

Obit wishes to welcome our new visitors and to thank our loyal community. Please take a minute to give us feedback and to tell us a bit about you, so that we can continue to bring you content that informs and entertains you. Through the lens of life.

Whatever happened to the 10th Great in Toronto?

Have you been wondering about what went wrong with the obit writers conference that was scheduled more than a year ago to be held in Toronto, Ontario? And what prompted the formation of the Society of Professional Obituary Writers?

Columnist Alex Beam seems to have the answers and shares them in Grave schism on the death beat, his June 3, 2008, column for the Boston Globe.

He starts the column: You know the inevitabilities of modern life: death, taxes, and rival organizations of newspaper obituarists.

Beam managed to get a history of what has come to be known as the "Toronto fiasco" from Carolyn Gilbert, the founder of the Great Obituary Writers Conferences and the International Association of Obituarists, and Colin Haskin, obits editor at the Globe and Mail who was to have been the local host of the 10th Great Obituary Writers Conference.

He really did his homework.

It's enlightening.

What a way to go! Or - What? A way to go?

Stephanie Hayes addresses the many ways in which families say their loved ones left the planet, walked out of their wheelchairs and into the arms of the Lord and other euphemisms for "died" in her article, 'Dying' is just not good enough anymore, in the June 1, 2008, edition of the St. Petersburg Times.

She writes: The more we avoid thinking about the big sleep, the more numb we become, said Michael Knox, a University of South Florida professor who has taught courses about, um, blank and blanking.

Stephanie adds: Spiritual euphemisms crossed over, entered eternal life can be comforting to those who believe existence continues after we leave our earthly vessels.

"When the culture believes there is something after death, it keeps them going," Knox said.

While writing obits for the Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio, I've encountered lots of staunch Christians, who insist that the dearly departed has "gone on to be with the Lord."

I usually tell them that, although their sainted loved one may have lived an exemplary Christian life that suggests that what they say is true, I can't write in a news obituary that someone is in heaven.

I can't verify it. I don't have a phone number for Jesus' heavenly mansion or St. Peter at the Pearly Gates. And our long distance lines don't reach that far anyway.

Another fraudulent obit

This has come up before - the idea of publishing a fraudulent obit to mislead creditors or whatever. Usually it is one's own obit and not somebody else's though.

Woman says fake obituary intended to keep creditors at bay

By Nita Birmingham (Contact)

The Post and Courier

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

A North Charleston woman who claimed to be the mother of a female Air Force officer killed in Iraq conceded Tuesday the officer doesn't exist.

Melanie Grant, 39, said she thought she could buy time with creditors if she told them her daughter had died. A paid obituary published Thursday and Friday in The Post and Courier stated Lt. Melissa Hope Grant, 24, died May 11 in Iraq.

"I just made it up. Honestly, I don't know what I was thinking," a tearful Melanie Grant said.

A photograph accompanied the obituary. Grant said she tore the photo from the pages of a bridal magazine.

Full obituaries and funeral notices are arranged through the newspaper's classified ad department. The Grant obituary was sent in from Suburban Funeral Home. The newspaper bills the funeral home, in this case $242.77, and the funeral home passes the cost on to the family.

Skip Mikell, executive vice president and general manager of Suburban Funeral Home, said he never suspected anything unusual about the "death."

Two women who identified themselves as aunts of the "deceased" sat in the funeral home's family room May 14 and gave Mikell basic information, he said. Grant said Tuesday that neither woman is a relative, but one is a longtime friend.

Though Mikell never met Grant, he said she called him last week. She told him she had to travel to a military base to pick up paperwork, which she would deliver to him Friday. Mikell said he became suspicious when Grant never showed. On Monday, he contacted a U.S. Department of Defense casualty officer who said she'd check all branches of the military for a Lt. Melissa Hope Grant. Mikell was still waiting Tuesday afternoon for word from Defense.

Grant said she got scared after the obituary was published.

Readers began posting online messages in the guest book for Lt. Melissa Hope Grant the day the obituary appeared, although most said they didn't know the woman or the family. Like many, Robbie Bray, chaplain of the Tri-County Blue Star Mother's Chapter of Charleston, expressed sympathy for the family and gratefulness for the woman's service to her country.

Bray's sadness turned to shock Tuesday when told there was no Lt. Melissa Hope Grant.

"What? Oh my gosh, why? Oh my goodness gracious. Oh my gosh, that is awful. My heavens. What a misrepresentation," Bray said.

Grant said she decided to come clean when questioned Tuesday by a Post and Courier reporter. She said she lives on disability on a fixed income and is raising two grandchildren and one stepgrandchild.

The idea of creating a death "just came in my head," as a way to get creditors to give her some space, she said.

Grant's criminal history obtained through the State Law Enforcement Division showed 15 variations on her name and several old convictions on loitering for the purpose of prostitution. The majority of her arrests were in the 1980s and 1990s. There is a pending fraudulent check charge from February.

Grant acknowledged Tuesday that she'd been arrested before, but said she'd worked hard to clean up her life. She said she's embarrassed that she duped so many people.

"It just wasn't worth it," she said.

Mikell said he'll consider the experience a lesson learned, and the funeral home will not try to collect the cost of the obituaries from Grant, who is already "ducking" creditors, he said.

Reach Nita Birmingham at 937-5433 or nbirmingham@postandcourier.com.

Researcher asks questions about obits

Kate Sweeney, a North Carolina-based writer, is putting together a book about "our changing ways of remembering our dead in this country, everything from green burial to online urn retailers, to, of course, obituaries."

She slipped a comment with questions into the last blog posting that merits a broader audience.

Kate writes: Have the number of papers that print "every-day Joe" obits in recent years, grown? (Those being, of course, obits not about famous people.)

Does anyone have any figures on this? Newspapers that have added the Everyman Obit?

Secondly, I'm also looking for hard evidence of whether the obituary's grown in popularity, period, in recent years.

Got any answers or comments for her?

SPOW in the news

The Society of Professional Obituary Writers Awards and the recent obit writers workshop in Portland, Ore., are getting some media attention.

The Philadelphia Daily News ran a story on May 15, 2008, titled Former DN obit writer Nicholson wins life honor about DN (Daily News, not Death Notice) retiree Jim Nicholson receiving SPOW's first Lifetime Achievement Award in Obituary Writing.

Nicholson says of the photo that ran with the story, "I think they used my high school prom pic, but that's OK."

To see a more recent Nicholson mug, go to the SPOW Awards page.

Adam Bernstein gave a workshop report titled "Conference of Death" on the Washington Post's Post Mortem blog on May 14, 2008.

The blog provides a link to Adam's article titled Death Beat: the Art of Advanced Obituaries which was posted in Global Journalist on Feb. 12, 2008.

Joe Strupp told Editor and Publisher readers about who won SPOW Awards in his May 14, 2008, article: Obit Writer Awards Honor 'AJC' and Toronto's 'Globe and Mail.'

Tim Bullamore got some press coverage in the U.K. in the Bath Chronicle - OBITUARY WRITER SCOOPS INTERNATIONAL AWARD - and the University of Bath's Centre for Death and Society for receiving SPOW honors.

Do you know of other published accounts of the awards and/or the workshop?

Jobs on the Death Beat

Obituaries Editor - The Washington Post - The Obituaries Editor, while reporting and writing obits, supervises a team of experienced reporters. The duties include assigning and editing stories, scheduling, doing staff evaluations, and coordinating with the News Desk, the Metro Copy Desk, other sections, the Photo Desk and WPNI editors. Previous editing experience is preferred but not a prerequisite. Our policy on obits makes The Post unique in the industry. In addition to reporting on the deaths of the well-known, we will do an obituary on anyone who has lived a substantial portion of his or her life in the Washington region. Obituaries are the news stories that bring The Post into the most intimate contact with its readers. We are looking for someone with an editor's eye and a reporter's zest, someone who can move the paper further along in its quest to deliver the best news obituaries anywhere. FMI: click here. (Note: This position will likely be filled internally.)

Obit Clerk/Typist - The Poughkeepsie Journal - The Poughkeepsie Journal Classified advertising department has an immediate opening for an organized, detail oriented individual. Responsibilities include typing obituaries, wedding, engagement and anniversary announcements. Additional duties include daily input of legal notices, employment line ads as well as inputting customer ads into the information system. This is a 30 hour per week position with a somewhat flexible schedule; evenings, weekends and holidays hours required. Excellent benefits, including 401(k) Savings Plan. FMI: click here.

Obituary Clerk/Typist - The Observer-Dispatch - Responsible for typing obituaries into the system, working with funeral directors to proof obits and price out. Part-time; 15 hours per week. Fri. 4:30pm-8pm, Sat. 1pm-8pm, Sun. 5pm-8pm or until job is done. Must have a working knowledge of computers and excellent typing skills. FMI: click here.

People's Picks

Although it did not count toward the final tallies for official winners in the Society of Professional Obituary Writers 2008 Awards, more than 100 individuals voted for their favorites in several categories in SPOW's online "People's Picks" popularity poll.

The following obit writers receive bragging rights from their adoring public:

Gerry Hostetler: Best tribute, memoir, column or retrospective piece (800 words and under) for her column about the death of a female impersonator titled Clay and Tracy shared big heart, a gift for dance.

Daniel Asa Rose: Best tribute, memoir, column or retrospective piece (over 800 words) for Fare Thee Well, Ex-Father-In-Law

Gayle Ronan Sims: Best long-form obituary (over 800 words) about a celebrity or famous person for her obit of Marie Hicks, 83, the Rosa Parks of Girard College.

Gayle Ronan Sims again: Best long-form obituary (over 800 words) about an Average Joe or non- celebrity for her story, Michael and Ida Carrozza: 1908-2006: Sweethearts who died as they lived. Here's the jump page.

Gayle Ronan Sims, third one: Best multimedia presentation of an obit or life story, Master Gunnery Sgt. Nicholas Formosa. See the previous blog posting - Best Multimedia Presentation of an Obit - for links.

Kay Powel: Best short-form obituary (800 words and under) about a celebrity or famous person: Arnold Hardy, 85, took Pulitzer-winning photo.

Kay Powell again: Best short-form obituary (800 words and under) about an Average Joe or non-celebrity: Thelma Hogan, 79, was restaurant fixture.

Kay Powell, third time: Best Body of Work. (See previous blog item - Best Body of Work - for links to stories.)

Kay Powell, four altogether: Lifetime Achievement. Read the nominating letter.

Thanks for voting, folks.

Jim Nicholson's "Acceptance Speech"

In a letter dated May 11, 2008, Jim Nicholson told the Society of Professional Obituary Writers:

I am deeply honored and humbled to have been selected to receive the first Lifetime Achievement Award of SPOW. Thank you.

On a very personal level it represents a final – and official - vindication.

Nearly 26 years ago when I began this new (the first obit page of any kind for the paper) obituary page for the Philadelphia Daily News, my column had the support of Assistant Managing Editor Tom Livingston, the original sponsor who thought we could not be a full service newspaper without an obit page, and Zack Stalberg, Editor of the Daily News.

Aside from them, in those early days, there were few supporters or fans in my own newsroom. The detractors were many, who viewed a 25-inch obit on a maintenance worker as a ludicrous waste of space.

We can all remember when the obituary writing job was reserved for old-timers spooling out their line, youngsters who needed to practice taking information error-free and others who were consigned by management to a short-term punishment or a long-term exile.

How the world of obit writing – and how the world perceives it - has changed in a quarter century. And each of you, individually, changed it because of who you are and how well you do what you do.

Never could I have imagined living to see the day when the craft of obituary writing would be so over-flowing with talent. Men and woman in a steep ascendancy as writers and reporters, indeed, many at an apex, choosing to be obituary writers. The roster of talent writing obits today defies logic.

No award in life ever means more than one which comes from a jury of one’s peers. And what peers!!

Thank you again. I remain,
Your Obedient Servant,
Jim Nicholson

Nicholson has accepted an invitation to speak at the Society of Professional Obituary Writers Convention that will be held April 23-25, 2009, in Charlotte, N.C.

SPOW's First Lifetime Achievement Award

Jim Nicholson, retired Philadelphia Daily News obituary writer, is the recipient of the Society of Professional Obituary Writers first Lifetime Achievement Award.

In her letter nominating Jim for this honor, Marilyn Johnson, author of The Dead Beat, said: His 19 years of obituaries for the Daily News, an estimated 20,000 of them, laid waste to the presumption that most lives are ordinary.

Before Nicholson, there were people important enough to note in passing, and those who weren’t; after Nicholson, if the subject of an obituary seemed ordinary, it was because the reporter had not dug deep enough.

Nicholson’s campaign to dignify every subject with his laser-beam attention – and the delicacy and generosity with which he wrote about their flawed lives-- was an innovation and a tremendous success. It immediately gave the Daily News an authentic voice in the local community and a standing in the national one.

Nicholson and the paper were honored early on by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, and the idea of using the obit page to tell life stories spread. Nicholson became something of an evangelist on this subject; he used to send out “obit kits” with samples and lists of questions and tips on resources.

His influence, eight years after his retirement, can be seen today on the obit pages of newspapers in the U.S. and beyond, embracing writers, editors, readers, funeral directors, and survivors.

The chapter I wrote about him for The Dead Beat makes a lengthier case for his influence.

I’ve attached a few of his obituaries from the Daily News archives, which demonstrate his skill, originality, and uncanny knack for (as one of his fellow obit writers put it) leaving the ground and taking off into the stratosphere.

Read some examples of his work here.

Best Body of Work

The Society of Professional Obituary Writers 2008 Award for Best Body of Work - which is the top SPOW Award for obits written in 2007 - is shared by Tom Hawthorn, a freelance writer from British Columbia, and Kay Powell, a staff obit writer from Georgia.

We've provided some biographical information on both winners in previous blog postings. Both have won SPOW Awards in other categories.

Here are the obits that swayed the judges:

Five of Tom Hawthorn's obits published in the Toronto-based Globe and Mail:

1. Jack Winter

2.Roy Borthwick

3. Mickey Rutner

4. James Barber

5. Don Leslie


Five of Kay Powell's obits published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

1. Valerie Daniel

2. Tillie Wood

3. Claude Miller

4. Boyzie Daniels

5. Arnold Hardy

Best Multimedia Presentation of an Obit

Gayle Ronan Sims of the Philadelphia Inquirer, who has given workshop presentations on how to use audio, video, slideshows, etc., to enhance an obituary, has won the Society of Professional Obituary Writers 2008 Award for Best multimedia presentation of an obit or life story.

Her winning entry about Master Gunnery Sgt. Nicholas Formosa included:
1. The obituary and its jump page;
2. A photo slide show accompanied by the voices of Formosa's wife and a fellow Marine;
3. A Marine Corps training video in which Formosa was the instructor.

Gayle Ronan Sims has bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She worked at the Denver Post for 12 years as news editor, features editor and editor of the Sunday lifestyle magazine.

She has been with The Philadelphia Inquirer since 1987. Gayle has been a news editor, a features editor, graphics editor and chief obituary writer for six years.

She is making the big push to awaken the online giant in the obituary section of The Inquirer.

Best tribute/memoir/column or retrospective - long and short

Writers for Obit Magazine won Society of Professional Obituary Writer Awards in Categories #5 (long-form) and #6 (short-form) for Best tribute, memoir, column or retrospective piece.

Daniel Asa Rose won for the long-form tribute/memoir with Fare Thee Well, Ex-Father-In-Law, which draws readers immediately with the sentence: Just because you break up with a woman is no reason to break up with her Dad.

Judy Bachrach took short-form memoir honors with her Remembering Ruth Graham, in which she talks about interviewing the wife of legendary evangelist Billy Graham.

Judy ended the piece with a Ruth Graham quote from Patricia Cornwell's biography of Ruth (Ruth: A Portrait), in which she expressed sincere regrets about marrying the evangelist in 1943.

"After the joy and satisfaction of knowing that I am his by rights and his forever, I will slip into the background," Ruth wrote long ago in her journal. "In short, be a lost life. Lost in Bill's."

Judy Bachrach is a frequent contributor to Obit. She is also a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and has previously written for the Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun and the Washington Star.

She is the author of Tina and Harry Come to America: Tina Brown, Harry Evans, and the Uses of Power (Free Press, 2001).

Daniel Asa Rose is the editor of the international literary magazine THE READING ROOM and a regular book reviewer for The New York Observer and New York Magazine. He has served as arts & culture editor of the Forward newspaper, travel columnist for Esquire magazine, humor writer for GQ, essayist for The New York Times Magazine, and food critic for the past 20 pounds.

Read his other work at www.danielasarose.com.

Best Short-Form obit about an Average Joe

Carol Smith of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer won the Society of Professional Obituary Writers 2008 Award in Category #4: Best short-form obituary (800 words and under) about an Average Joe or non- celebrity with her story, Dying vet planned a final mission.

It's the story of retired Air Force Lt. Col. Rob Lutz, a former Air Commando pilot, who with less than 72 hours to live orchestrated a plan from his hospital bed that allowed him to take a final flight.

Carol told us: After this story ran, I heard from readers around the country who were moved by this man's efforts to accomplish his final wish against the odds. I think the response reflects a universal desire we have to meet fate on our own terms.

Carol Smith is an enterprise reporter and narrative writing coach for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, where she has covered a variety of beats, including science, medicine, and the working poor since 1997.

She is also a frequent obit-writer for the paper, where she also helped launch the paper's "People" team to get more profiles, obits and narrative stories about extraordinary "ordinary" people in the paper.

The PEN USA Literary Foundation, the American Association of Sunday and Features Editors, the Society of Professional Journalists, Best of the West and others, have recognized her work nationally and regionally. She has also been recognized for her investigative work, and was a co-finalist for Harvard University's Goldsmith Prize in Investigative Journalism.

Her work was a 2006 finalist for the PEN Literary awards, and was also included in "The Best Creative Nonfiction," published June, 2007, by W. W. Norton & Company.

Prior to joining the Seattle P-I, Smith freelanced for the Los Angeles Times, Redbook magazine and other publications.

Best Short-Form Obit about a Celebrity

The competition for the Society of Professional Obituary Writers Award in Category #3: Best short-form obituary (800 words and under) about a celebrity or famous person resulted in a tie between two American obit writers from the same paper.

Holly Crenshaw wrote the SPOW Award winning obit, Margaret Anne Barnes, 'Murder in Coweta' author, for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Holly shares the award with Kay Powell and Kay's obit for Arnold Hardy, 85, took Pulitzer-winning photo.

Holly Crenshaw has worked for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution since 1984 as a news researcher, local news reporter, arts writer, assistant editor and online producer. She has been writing obituaries for the AJC since 2005.

She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Memphis and a master's degree from Emory University.

Kay Powell has been writing obituaries for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution since 1996.

Before joining the AJC in 1994 she was a research scientist at Georgia Tech, director of a community development program, self-employed seminar presenter, copy writer, accountant for Red Cross disasters, model and actor in industrial films and worked for the Georgia Public Service Commission.

When not being the Doyenne of the Death Beat, she plays bridge.

Best Long-Form Obit about an Average Joe

Tom Hawthorn wrote the winning obit in the Society of Professional Obituary Writers 2008 Awards Category #2: Best long-form (over 800 words) obituary about an Average Joe or non-celebrity.

His 'Tattooed king of the midway' was a tough act to swallow tells the story of Don Leslie, a carnival performer known for his "legendary finale" that "involved the insertion into his mouth of five long swords."

Tom writes that Leslie "eventually abandoned the stunt after an accident in Seattle in 1989 when he came within a razor's edge of becoming a living kebob."

When colleagues toasted Tom at the awards presentation in Portland, Ore., May 10, for winning the SPOW Award, Tom responded with a line from Leslie's obit: "Down the hatch without a scratch."

Tom Hawthorn is an independent Canadian newspaper and magazine writer known for his award-winning features. His sports writing has been included in several anthologies.

Read his columns at www.tomhawthorn.blogspot.com.

Best Long-Form Obit about a Celebrity

The Society of Professional Obituary Writers Category #1: Best long-form (over 800 words) obituary about a celebrity or famous person.

And the winner is. (Dramatic pause.) We have a tie.

The winning entries are Natalia Karp, an obit that Tim Bullamore wrote for the Daily Telegraph of London, and Mr. Toronto Dies at 92, written for the Globe and Mail of Canada by Sandra Martin. (Here's the Mr. Toronto jump page.)

Do you want to know about the winners?

Tim Bullamore is one of the leading obituary writers and researchers in Britain, but his byline doesn't appear as often as it should because some British publications don't include author bylines on obits.

His work is published regularly in the Daily Telegraph and has appeared in The (London) Times, The Guardian and The Independent.

He is in demand on both sides of the Atlantic to speak about the art of the British obituary and has been featured in publications on three continents. In 2005, he hosted the International Association of Obituarists 7th Great Obituary Writers Conference in his home town, Bath, UK.

In addition to his writing commitments, Tim is studying for a PhD, investigating the history and art of the British obituary.

Sandra Martin, a senior feature writer with The Globe and Mail, has won the Atkinson and Canadian Journalism Fellowships and gold and silver National Magazine Awards.

Her latest book is The First Man in My Life: Daughters Write About Their Fathers, which she conceived and edited for Penguin in 2007. She was the co-editor of the annual Oberon Best Short Stories and Coming Attractions anthologies from 1984 through 1986.

Sandra is the co-author of three books, including Rupert Brooke in Canada and Card Tricks: Bankers, Boomers and the Explosion of Plastic Credit, which was shortlisted for the Canadian Business Book Award in 1993.

A past president of PEN Canada, she is the mother of a grown son and daughter. She lives in Toronto with her husband, historian Roger Hall, and her cat, Alice.

Sandra provided the following background on Ed Mirvish, a.k.a. Mr. Toronto:

He was a huge celebrity in Toronto, a poor boy who was a whiz at marketing and who made a fortune in a "small box" store that offered cheap prices to immigrants and only took cash payment.

He was a larger than life character. Once he made his money, he acquired a lot of cultural capital by rescuing The Old Vic in England and building The Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto.

He had been ailing for years, so I had prepared an obituary on him some time ago, but I had forgotten about it when he finally died.

There was a big push on that day because we are a national paper and there is a local paper, The Toronto Star, that has a bigger circulation in the city than we do.

There was a big scramble, and I found my stuff and then there was a huge rush to re-work and update my material because they wanted to go big and run the obituary over two pages.

(Blog-editor's note: When Catherine Dunphy of The Toronto Star saw the entries for the SPOW Awards, she said, "Cast my vote for Mr. Toronto." The two Toronto-produced papers may compete with one another, but a good obit is a good obit no matter where it's published.)

Congratulations, Winners of 2008 Society of Professional Obituary Writers Awards

The Society of Professional Obituary Writers announced the winners of the group's inaugural awards Saturday during the professional obit writers workshop in Portland, Ore., Saturday.

Winning entries for official SPOW Awards were determined by scores offered by SPOW judges.

Just for fun, SPOW also allowed the public to vote for their favorites. The "People's Picks" were tallied separately for bragging rights only.

Obit writers winning official SPOW Awards are:
Tim Bullamore, Daily Telegraph of London;
Sandra Martin, Globe and Mail of Canada;
Tom Hawthorn, Globe and Mail;
Kay Powell, Atlanta Journal Constitution;
Holly Crenshaw, Atlanta Journal Constitution;
Carol Smith, Seattle Post-Intelligencer;
Daniel Asa Rose, Obit Magazine;
Judy Bachrach, Obit Magazine;
Gayle Ronan Sims, Philadelphia Inquirer;
Jim Nicholson, Philadelphia Daily News, retired.

In the People's Picks, Gayle Ronan Sims won in three of the nine categories, Kay Powell in four. Gerry Hostetler of the Charlotte Observer and Daniel As Rose also were named favorites.

Stand by. We'll explain who won what in separate blog items. We'll soon post it all on the SPOW Awards page.

Astonishing AP correction

About time!

Correction: Obit-Gardner story

41 words

8 May 2008

06:05

Associated Press Newswires

English

(c) 2008. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

BOSTON (AP) - In a Sept. 17, 2004, obituary for songwriter Donald Yetter Gardner, The Associated Press misstated the year he wrote "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth." It was 1944, not 1947.

Pro-Obama Death Notice

NYTimes 5/6/2008

NICHOLS--Cicely, 70, activist, editor, writer, entrepreneur. Her West Village, NYC home was a hub for a broad range of artists, musicians, writers, intellectuals, and activists at the heart of numerous movements. She was a leader in the fight for justice and inspired others to believe in themselves, each other, and their dreams. Memorial: 6:30pm, May 11, Greenwich House Music School, 46 Barrow St. No flowers; please give to cancer research by Dr. Herbert Chen, information: gastrinoma@aol.com, 608-263-2434. Vote Obama!

Vote now! Polls are open for Society of Professional Obituary Writers contest!

Go to the Awards page of the Society of Professional Obituary Writers Web site, click a category, read the obits and vote for your favorites.

The public polling won't affect the outcome of the official awards, which will be decided by SPOW members only. But the people's choice results will be announced at the May 11th awards presentation at the Professional Obituary Writers Workshop at The Oregonian in Portland, Ore.

Good luck to all who entered, and thanks to all who vote.

Even if you don't vote, you'll want to read these wonderful once-in-a-lifetime stories.

Review entries for the 2008 Society of Professional Obituary Writers Awards

Some of the best obituaries written in 2007 by some of the best obituary writers in the United States, Canada and United Kingdom have been entered in the first Society of Professional Obituary Writers Awards competition.

Entries are gradually being posted on the SPOW Awards page.

As the entries are posted, the public can view them by clicking the various contest categories.

The text of the entries for "Best body of work" are online now. Some have links to the stories as they appeared in newspapers or online publications. Other links will be added soon.

Although only the votes of SPOW members will count toward selecting official award winners, nonmembers will be able to cast their votes in a "people's choice" poll. The poll will open in the next few days and close on May 7, 2008.

Poll results and SPOW Award winners will be announced during the Professional Obituary Writers Workshop at The Oregonian in Portland, Ore., May 8-11, 2008.

Queen of Sisig

Wikipedia is reporting the murder of Lucita Cunanan - at 80. Anyhow, the Filipino dish she invented or at least perfected is fascinating:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisig

NPR report: Newspaper obits vs. online tributes

National Public Radio's "Marketplace" had a segment today - April 9, 2008 - about customized online obits and an already successful Internet entrepreneur who sees the potential for making a killing by posting them for a fee at a central Web site - Tributes.com - which is expected to make its debut in June.

Listen to the report here.

What do you think about that?

Reminder: Deadline for contest entries is Tuesday.

Attention, obituary writers.

You've got until a few seconds before midnight Tuesday, April 1, 2008, to enter your work in the Society of Professional Obituary Writers contest for distinguished obituary writing of 2007.

Entering is rather simple compared to most other journalism organizations' contests. You can submit the entries and pay the entry fees online. No need to worry about pasting articles on poster board, pay for postage or get to the post office.

SPOW is offering eight opportunities for an obit writer to be recognized. Well, actually nine.

There are eight categories for work that was published during the 2007 calendar year. A $25 fee is required for each of those categories.

The ninth - the Lifetime Achievement Award - doesn't cost a thing. And anyone - even people who are not obituary writers or members of SPOW - can nominate an obituary writer for this honor.

For details on the categories, how to enter the contest, how to make a Lifetime Achievement nomination and the judging process, go to the Society of Professional Obituary Writers Awards page.

Good luck to all who enter and to all who are nominated.

Contest for best obituary writing of 2007 and much more.

The Society of Professional Obituary Writers will present awards for obituary writing in eight categories and a Lifetime Achievement Award in Obituary Writing during the Professional Obituary Writers Workshop at The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon, May 8-11, 2008.

Submitting your best obits published during the 2007 calendar year, paying entry fees and judging will be done online. You and/or your news organization's contest coordinators should appreciate that.

Deadline for entering is April 1, 2008. Five finalists will be selected by a panel of judges – themselves obituary writers. The finalists’ work will be posted on the SPOW Web site beginning April 15 for review by members of SPOW and the general public.

Winners in each category, chosen by SPOW members’ votes, will be announced at the Portland workshop.

Details on the categories and how to enter the contest are posted on the Awards page of the SPOW Web site.

Anyone can nominate a veteran obituary writer for the Lifetime Achievement Award, and there's no fee or membership involved. Letters of nominations should explain how this individual has shown dedication to the craft of obit writing over time.

Want to play a part in choosing the winners? Join SPOW.

Membership is open to journalists who make a living from or get paid to write/edit obits for newspapers, magazines, news blogs, other news organizations, newsletters, etc.

(Educators, scholars and others with a serious interest in obituary writing should be able to become associate members after SPOW members convene for the first time at the Portland workshop.)

No membership fee is required while this organization is in its infancy.

The only immediate privileges of SPOW membership are the right to vote on the five finalists in each contest category, to approve selection of Lifetime Achievement and to elect officers, approve bylaws and plan SPOW's future.

To join, simply send the following information with your name in the subject line to members@obitwriters.org: Name, news organization, job title, mailing address at work, home mailing address (optional), e-mail address(es), phone number(s), and a brief bio with emphasis on your obituary-related work.

Want to know more about the Professional Obituary Writers Workshop in May in Portland, where the first SPOW meeting will be held?

Details on speakers and plans that Oregonian obituary writers Amy Starke and Joan Harvey have planned for workshoppers are posted on SPOW's Development page.

Also on the SPOW Web site are the Workshop Registration Form - registration for the entire event is only $50 - and accommodations information.

Any questions? Write to info@obitwriters.org.

Congratulations are in order

Michael Largo's book "The Portable Obituary: How the Famous, Rich and Powerful Really Died" has just been nominated for a 2007 Bram Stoker Award in the Superior Achievement in Nonfiction category. The Stokers, which are named in honor of Bram Stoker, author of "Dracula," are given annually by the Horror Writers Association.

Largo is also author the author of "Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We Die."

Nice work!

Obituary writing awards, SPOW membership and Portland workshop

Specifics about the Society of Professional Obituary Writers' awards for obituary writing of last year, SPOW membership and the Professional Obituary Writers Workshop project of Amy Starke and Joan Harvey, including registration form, are now available at the SPOW Web site: http://www.obitwriters.org.

The site is still under construction. Disregard the gibberish in the sidebar and the meaningless stock images of a tree and a woman whom we don't know. Send suggestions on appropriate images and other elements that you feel should grace the site to info@obitwriters.org.

Derrick Henry, RIP

Robert Derrick Henry, an obituary writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, died on Jan. 29 of complications from an inoperable tumor. He was 58.

Henry was hired in 1985 to be the newspaper's classical music critic. He later covered the religion and nonprofit beats before moving to the obit desk.

"He worked in constant pursuit of words that could match the fascinating lives of those about whom he wrote. ... Through his obituaries, readers got a tour of forgotten Atlanta," Hank Klibanoff said.

Registration fees for the two obit confabs

Here's information about registration for the Professional Obituary Writers Workshop that two Oregonian obit writers, Amy Starke and Joan Harvey, are organizing and the 10th Great Obituary Writers' International Conference hosted by Carolyn M. Gilbert.

Professional Obituary Writers Workshop
at The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon
May 8-11, 2008
Registration fee: $50
The registration form will be posted soon on the Society of Professional Obituary Writers Web site - http://www.obitwriters.org - which is still under construction or can be obtained by directly contacting Amy or Joan at The Oregonian.

10th Great Obituary Writers' International Conference
at The Plaza Hotel, Las Vegas, New Mexico
June 12-14, 2008
Registration fee: Requires an explanation.

According to the following excerpt from http://www.obitpage.com - the 10th Great Web site - conference registration is on a sliding scale according to the conferee's ability to pay.

Please select any amount from $100.00 to $200.00 for your registration. If there are two registrations from one family, feel free to pay $100.00 each. If you had a good year, you may wish to pay up to $200.00 for your registration!

The next excerpt indicates that conference-goers should add $50 to that for membership in the International Association of Obituarists that Gilbert founded.

The annual membership fee remains the same: $50.00 for all. If you are not a current member, please add this fee of $50.00 to your registration.

The registration form for the 10th Great is posted at Obitpage.com.

Read previous blog items for explanations for the two obit confabs and the two obit writers groups. Please go to "Comments" at the end of this item or write to info@obitwriters.org to ask questions.

Tale of Two Obituary Writers Confabs

We've been doing a lot of posting about the Professional Obituary Writers Workshop that will be held at The Oregonian in Portland, Ore., May 8-11, 2008.

Now we've learned that the 10th Great Obituary Writers International Conference will be held at its former home, the Plaza Hotel, in Las Vegas, N.M., June 12-14, 2008.

If you write about the dead for a living and can afford to, I recommend you attend both events.

The Portland workshop is aimed at providing training sessions for obit-writing journalists.

Speakers so far include nationally known writer's coach Jack Hart, Pulitzer Prize winner Jim Sheeler of the Rocky Mountain News, Margalit Fox of the New York Times, Adam Bernstein of the Washington Post, Gayle Sims of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Kay Powell of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Robin Hinch of the Orange County Register, Larken Bradley of the West Marin Citizen, Alana Baranick (that would be me) of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Don Colburn of The Oregonian, Toronto freelance obit writer Ron Csillag, Oregonian researcher/librarian Lynne Palombo and Amelia Rosner of alt.obituaries.

The New Mexico conference speakers have not been announced at the conference Web site - www.obitpage.com. But if the 10th Great follows the course of its Numbered Great predecessors, the sessions will be informative and entertaining. Conference goers most likely will include obituary aficionados as well as folks who write obits. The camaraderie is awesome.

The 10th Great, as its name suggests, will observe its 10th anniversary this year.

Meanwhile, a new organization, the Society of Professional Obituary Writers, will hold its first general meeting and present awards for obituary writing at the Portland workshop. Contest details will be posted on this blog and at www.obitwriters.org in the next week or so.

It's an exciting time to be an obituary writer.

Examples of Multimedia Obituaries

I think Gayle Ronan Sims of the Philadelphia Inquirer is one of the best at putting together multimedia obits. She writes terrific stories and links them online to extra photos, audio and video, creates slide shows, and sometimes finds other online pieces to further enlighten readers.

One of her recent efforts (recent for when this post was written) was for the Jan. 20, 2008, obit of Joseph William Burk, Penn rowing coach and war hero.

She found an online newsletter for rowing enthusiasts with a complete rundown of Burk's rowing career and a row-by-row radio broadcast of Burk winning the Diamond Sculls at the Henley Royal Regatta in England in 1938, where he broke the the record by eight seconds.

Keep checking the Philadelphia Inquirer obit page for other examples of multimedia obits.

Please let us know about multimedia obits from other papers that we can share on this blog.

Poynter Online centerpiece on Multimedia Obituaries

Mallary Tenore's months of research on the subject of multimedia obituaries culminated in the centerpiece, Linking to Life with Multimedia Obits, at the Poynter Institute Web site on Jan. 28, 2008.

She addresses linking obits to video, audio and slide shows, as well as obit blogs, Legacy.com's online data base of paid obits from many American newspapers and online tributes.

Mallary also gave the Society of Professional Journalists its first media exposure. The Professional Obituary Writers Workshop scheduled for May 8-11 at The Oregonian in Portland, Ore., was promoted in the centerpiece's comment field.

Thanks, Mallary.

Lots of speakers for Professional Obituary Writers Workshop in Portland, Ore.

Amy Starke and Joan Harvey are hard at work, lining up speakers and hotel accommodations for the Professional Obituary Writers Workshop that will be held May 8-11 at The Oregonian in Portland, Ore.

We'll start this list with the most recent additions followed by those who were announced earlier.

-- Margalit Fox, New York Times obituary writer and a finalist for the 2005 ASNE award for obit writing, will speak on obituaries as American social history, and possibly will make other presentations, too.

-- Robin Hinch, longtime obituary writer from the Orange County Register, will speak on "The Everyman Obituary."

-- Jim Sheeler, reporter for the Rocky Mountain News, winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, will speak on writing military obituaries and the experience of doing his Pulitzer feature, "Final Salute."

-- Adam Bernstein, of the Washington Post, one of the most respected obit writers in the country and perhaps the world, on writing advance obituaries and on doing deep historical research.

-- Gayle Sims of the Philadelphia Inquirer, conducting a half-day workshop on multimedia obituaries.

-- Kay Powell, of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, speaking about regional differences in obituaries, tragedy interviewing, and how smaller papers and weekly papers can work obituaries into each edition.

-- Larken Bradley, NNA obit-writing award winner, now with the West Marin Citizen, a weekly newspaper in Point Reyes Station, Calif., conducting discussions on writing obituaries for pay and on doing obituaries for community newspapers.

-- Larken Bradley will join Ron Csillag, a Toronto obit freelancer, in discussing freelancing the obituary.

-- Oregonian researcher/librarian extraordinaire Lynne Palombo, on backgrounding/cops-and-courts.

-- Special guest Amelia Rosner, obituary devotee/connoisseur, on a topic to be announced.

-- Jack Hart, nationally known writer's coach and author, conducting one of his special writing intensives. Even if you've been writing for 30 years, you'll get a lot out of this.

-- Don Colburn, Oregonian reporter, with a talk on Oregon's assisted suicide law and how it works, kicking off a discussion on handling suicides in obituaries. We'll show video of one, too.

-- Alana Baranick, Cleveland Plain Dealer, organizing the brand-new Society of Professional Obituary Writers (SPOW).

Keep watching this blog for more on the workshop, SPOW, SPOW's Web site and a contest for obituary writers.

Additional speakers for Professional Obituary Writers Workshop

The following speakers have been added to the list from the previous post of folks who will enlighten us at the Professional Obituary Writers Workshop in Portland, Ore., May 8-11:

-- Special guest Amelia Rosner, obituary devotee/connoisseur and a leading alt.obituaries poster, will speak on a topic to be announced.

-- Ron Csillag, Toronto obit freelancer, is expected to lead a discussion on freelancing the obituary.

-- Oregonian researcher/librarian extraordinaire Lynne Palombo will offer tips on doing pre-obituary background cops-and-courts searches.

Questions? Contact Amy Starke and Joan Harvey at workshop@obitwriters.org.

Portland Workshop Update

Amy Starke reports that the Professional Obituary Writers Workshop, which will be held at The Oregonian in Portland, Ore., May 8-11, is shaping up.

So far, she and her workshop partner Joan Harvey have lined up the following:

-- Jack Hart, nationally known writer's coach, will conduct one of his special writing intensives.

-- Don Colburn, Oregonian reporter, will kick off a discussion of handling suicides in obituaries with a talk on Oregon's assisted suicide law and how it works.

-- Gayle Sims of the Philadelphia Inquirer is tentatively scheduled to conduct a half-day workshop on multimedia.

-- Larken Bradley, who has received several National Newspaper Association honors for obituaries she wrote for a weekly paper in Marin County, Calif., is expected to conduct discussions on writing obituaries for pay and on doing obituaries for community newspapers.

-- Adam Bernstein of the Washington Post will address writing advance obituaries and doing deep historical research.

-- Kay Powell, obits editor at the Atlanta Journal Constitution, is scheduled to speak about “Regional Differences in Obituaries,” “Tragedy Interviewing” and how smaller papers and weekly papers can work obituaries into each edition.

-- Alana Baranick of The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio, will talk about organizing the brand-new Society of Professional Obituary Writers.

Visit this blog and the SPOW site - which is under construction at the moment - for the latest in the continuing saga of the workshop and the new organization.

Society of Professional Obituary Writers. It's alive!!!

Society of Professional Obituary Writers is the name that the advisory committee has chosen for the new organization for folks who write about the dead for a living.

SPOW will hold its first meeting during the Professional Obituary Writers Workshop at The Oregonian in Portland, Ore., May 8-11.

Keep watching this blog for more information about the workshop, which is the brainchild of Joan Harvey and Amy Starke of The Oregonian, and news about SPOW.

Name that death beat organization

As you may know from reading previous blog items, a new organization is being established for people who make their living writing about the dead.

The question arises: What will be the name of that organization?

Suggestions so far include:
1. Professional Obituary Writers;
2. Professional Obituary Writers Society;
3. Professional Obituary Writers Organization;
4. The Society of Professional Obituarists;
5. Society of Obituary Journalists.

And that's just for starters. Do you have a preference among these or a moniker suggestion of your own?

TV tries to mimic Sheeler's "Final Salute"

The CBS Sunday Morning magazine program featured a segment called "The Fallen" on Dec. 30 as an end-of-the-year remembrance of servicemen and -women who died in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2007.

From the beginning, it was clear that this was a recycling of reporter (and former obituary writer) Jim Sheeler's and photographer Todd Heisler's 2006 Pulitzer-winning "Final Salute", the tear-jerking, heart-tugging feature which was published in the Rocky Mountain News in 2005.

First, they showed Heisler's memorable photo of passengers' faces in the windows of a parked airplane as a flag-draped coffin is being carried out of the plane's belly.

Then the CBS newsman David Martin interviewed Steve Beck, the Marine whose job it was to knock on doors of the unsuspecting soon-to-be-bereaved, the Marine whom Jim and Todd shadowed in order to get the story.

Martin also interviewed Melissa Givens, a widow whom Jim probably first interviewed in 2003 after her husband, Jesse, drowned in a tank in the desert. Check Jim's story from March 19, 2004: "The lifetime gift of Pfc. Givens."

It was nice to see images I recognized and hear about what's happened to Beck - then Maj. Beck, now Lt. Col. Beck - and the widow Givens since Jim wrote about them.

But even with the weeping widow and the Marine saying he'll never forget the fallen or their families, the TV version lacked the emotional impact of Jim's words and all of Todd's photos.

Hugh Massingberd, father of contemporary British obits

Hugh Massingberd, obituaries editor of The Daily Telegraph of London from 1986 to 1994, turned the pomp and solemnity of traditional tributes for the recently deceased into humorous, candid and sometimes vicious profiles of the dearly departed.

Massingberd died Dec. 25, 2007, and quickly became the subject for the Telegraph's featured obit.

In his obit, Massingberd was quoted as saying of his craft:
"I determined to dedicate myself to chronicling what people were really like through informal anecdote, description and character sketch." Laughter, he added, would be by no means out of place.

Per the Telegraph story, when Massingberd took over the obits desk:
Immediately, Telegraph readers found themselves regaled by such characters as Canon Edward Young, the first chaplain of a striptease club; the last Wali of Swat, who had a fondness for brown Windsor soup; and Judge Melford Stevenson, who considered that "a lot of my colleagues are just constipated Methodists".

A tip of the hat and undying thanks to the master from fellow obit writers everywhere.

Legal physician-assisted suicide, topic for Portland workshop

Don Colburn, an Oregonian reporter (and poet) who has extensively covered Oregon's Death with Dignity Act (also known as physician-assisted suicide), will be giving a presentation at the professional obituary writers workshop to be held in Portland, Ore., May 8-11.

Colburn will also be showing a multimedia presentation that chronicles the actual physician-assisted suicide, at which he was present, of a terminally ill Oregonian staff member.

Colburn will be available for questions about the law in Oregon, the only U.S. state that has legalized suicide with certain restrictions.

Al Tompkins of The Poynter Institute lauded The Oregonian for its coverage of this sensitive and controversial issue on "Al's Morning Meeting" page nearly two years ago.

This workshop will kick off a discussion on coverage of suicides in writing obituaries.

Professional Obituary Writers Workshop: Featuring Author of "A Writer's Coach"

The Oregonian's nationally known writing coach, author and soon-to-be-retired editor at large, Jack R. Hart, is scheduled to do a writing workshop/intensive on May 10 at the professional obituary writers' workshop organized by Amy Starke and Joan Harvey at The Oregonian in Portland, Ore.

Jack edited Amy's Life Stories for 9 months in between permanent editors, and coached Tom Hallman, Richard Read, and others to Pulitzer Prizes.

And that's not all.

In its author biography for Jack, the Niemann Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University says:
Jack Hart, a managing editor at The Oregonian, has coached writing in newsrooms throughout the English-speaking world. He has edited two Pulitzer Prize-winning stories (and contributed editing to a third). He has also edited winners of the American Society of Newspaper Editors Writing Awards, the Ernie Pyle Award, the Scripps Howard business-writing award, The Overseas Press ClubAwards, the Headliners awards and the Society of Professional Journalists feature-writing award. He has taught at five universities, The Poynter Institute and the American Press Institute.

Stu Warner, the writing coach at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio, has been teaching staff writers (myself included) from Jack's book, "A Writer's Coach: An Editor's Guide to Words that Work."

Kudos to Amy and Joan for getting the writing experts' expert to speak to obit writers like us at their workshop.

Remember, more details on the workshop will be posted here as they become available.

Jack Frost, no longer nipping at your nose

Among the obituaries in the Roseburg News Review in Roseburg, Ore., on April 24, 2007, was the story of the late Jack Frost.

I thought it was cool (pun intended) that Jack W. Frost, who died at the age of 82, served with the Army in Sitka, Alaska, on the Aleutian Islands near the end of World War II.

But I was surprised to see that Jack's parents gave him that wintry moniker. After all, his dad's name was Jack A. Frost.

I thought, "Didn't his dad know he'd be kidded about his name all his life?"

It's one of those things that we assume has been around forever.

While it's true in this case that the character Jack Frost has its roots in folklore that predated the modern Jack W. Frost's 1924 birthdate, I'm not certain that folks back then would have had the same kind of reaction to his name that I did.

I know Jack Frost because of Mel Torme's "A Christmas Song" with the lyric, "Jack Frost nipping at your nose."

My kids (grown men now, I should point out) would know Jack Frost from those Claymation stories about Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus that are shown on TV during the winter holiday season.

Names - and words, in general - can mean different things to people of different ages, ethnic backgrounds and interests and at different times in our history.

Deep thoughts on a snowy weekend in my neck of the woods.

Ike Turner in The New York Post

Worst obit headline ever.

Ask Gayle Ronan Sims - Philadelphia Inquirer

Ask Gayle Ronan Sims - Philadelphia Inquirer

A Professional Obituary Writers Organization

The workshop for professional obituary writers in Portland, Ore., mentioned in a previous blog item, is designed for a specific audience: Folks who make their living by writing obits.

It is not intended to replace the International Association of Obituarists' annual Great Obituary Writers Conference, which is open to anyone who loves stories about the lives of the dearly departed.

Likewise, an organization for professional obituary writers that is being formed is not intended to replace the IAO, but to serve the needs of journalists on the death beat.

An advisory committee for the new group will consider various points of view and make initial decisions on behalf of all the obit pros to get the organization off the ground, obtain not-for-profit status and set up its own Web site. (Details to come as they are available.)

At some point, the membership will elect a board of directors and officers. When and how that will happen is up to the advisory committee to decide.

Comments on the formation of this group are welcome. Stay tuned to this Obituary Forum blog for the developing story.

FYI: The fledgling organization is not in charge of the Portland conference. That is strictly the brainchild of the folks from The Oregonian.

Workshop for Professional Obituary Writers in Portland, Oregon

Amy Starke and Joan Harvey of The Oregonian are planning a training workshop to help professional obit writers enhance their skills. The workshop will be held May 8-11, 2008, in Portland, Oregon.

The Oregonian has agreed to make its conference rooms available for workshop sessions.

"The Oregonian as you may know is the envy of many other newspapers for the
amount of space it devotes to obituaries." the two Oregonian obit writers boast.

And it's true. The paper runs little obits on just about everyone in the Portland circulation area.

Naturally, the deaths of newsmakers get published. But probably the most wonderful obits are the Life Stories, longer feature obits about everyday people, that are fascinating - even to readers who never knew the deceased.

With the workshops, Amy and Joan hope to address such topics as interviewing skills, deep historical/courts and cops research, multimedia skills, focusing and writing tight, approaches to candor in obituaries.

The workshop will be open only to professional obit writers.

Of course, you'll want to know the background of the brains behind the Portland workshop.

Amy Martinez Starke, a newspaper journalist for the past 30 years, has spent the last 16 years at The Oregonian. The Life Story writer (for nearly five years) has written more than 600 story-length obituaries, most of them feature obituaries about ordinary people. Amy has experience in copy editing, layout and wire editing in addition to reporting. She previously worked at The Orange County Register and for small papers in Washington, D.C., and Texas.

Joan Harvey has been writing obits for The Oregonian for the past 10 years. Before taking 30 years off to raise five children, she was a general-assignment reporter and wrote social news for The Oregonian. During her hiatus, she was a freelance food and travel writer for The Oregonian and writer and editor for Portland-area African-American and Jewish newspapers.

Workshop details will be posted on this blog as they become available. Your comments are welcome.

(FYI: This event is not intended to compete with the annual Great Obituary Writers International Conference, which is open to anyone who loves obits. (The 10th Great is scheduled for Toronto, Ontario, June 12-14, 2008.)

Talk about God being your assignment editor

Wally Guenther, my partner-in-grim at Cleveland's Plain Dealer, was reading through faxes, emails and death notices in search of his obit subject for Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2007, when his cubicle mate, Brian Albrecht, suggested he do an obituary for Vincent Fredrick.

Fredrick, 82, had survived two B-17 bomber crashes in Europe during World War II.

He kept a diary of his 35 bombing missions. It was published into a book that was titled "Satan's Lady" after the bomber on which he flew his last 24 missions.

How did Brian know about this guy?

Well, Brian is the go-to guy at the PD for stories about WW2 and the military. He came to work Monday with an interview scheduled at lunchtime with - you guessed it - Vincent Fredrick.

When he called to make sure the appointment was still on, he was told that the man died Friday. So Wally ended up interviewing Fredrick's family.

On top of that, Brian handed information to me that he had received during the summer about another WW2 vet, who had written a memoir of his wartime experiences for his grandchildren.

Yep! He's gone too. Died Nov. 1.

Guess whose "life story" I'm working on this week!

The late Richard Pearson, who was obits editor at The Washington Post, used to say of choosing subjects for obits, "God is my assignment editor." Kay Powell, obits editor at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and many other obit writers have adopted this phrase as their own.

Yes, God is my assignment editor too. But sometimes he passes that assignment to me through an intermediary, like Brian.

Log Cabin Republican in Kucinich Land

Since I started writing "A Life Story," my weekly obituary feature for The Plain Dealer, I've been focused on celebrating the diversity of the people of Northeast Ohio.

My purpose is to introduce readers to folks in their communities, whom they probably didn't know, and to lifestyles and cultures that may be unfamiliar to them.

Black, white. From places as different as Sri Lanka and Slovakia. Sons of Italy and Daughters of the American Revolution. Old, young. Male, female.

I haven't found a transgender subject yet.

I have written about some dearly departed gays and lesbians, but I've had to be careful what I wrote. I mean, how can you say that a person was gay, when his partner denies it? And what do you do when the partner is cool with it, but the elderly mother and the siblings are in denial?

It's not that I want a "gay" headline or to spell out details about the person's sexual practices. I simply want to write stories about everyday people, who happen to be gay. They're not creatures, who came from outer space or are headed for hell. They're your neighbors, your grocers, your teachers.

Finally, this week I got to write a story about a Log Cabin Republican, who lived in an extremely liberal-leaning neighborhood.

Stanley Mason didn't have a closeted boyfriend or secretive relatives to hinder my report. He was as open about being gay as he was of being a Republican in an area that is likely to vote for native son Dennis Kucinich for president.

He was simply his own person.

Stanley spoke often of growing up with open-minded relatives - including several who were gay. He told friends that he was surprised at the large number of gays who served with him in the military in the Korean War. Plus, he belonged to a gay seniors group.

I was so pleased that I got to include this stuff in his obit, along with his civic activism, love of target-shooting - wearing nothing but a thong - and his community pride.

It's too bad that the pictures that were printed with the story don't show up with the online version. You should have seen the photo of bald-headed, white-bearded Stanley sitting on Santa Claus' lap.