Thoughts on Cause of Death

New book by Alaska obituary writer Heather Lende

I was lucky enough this week to attend a reading and slideshow by Heather Lende from Haines, Alaska. Heather writes obituaries for the Chilkat Valley News and she made a stop in the Bay Area promoting her latest book, Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs -- Family, Friendships, and Faith in Small-Town Alaska.

A number of us met Heather a couple of years back at the obituary-writers conference at the Oregonian in Portland. Heather writes the obits for every person who dies in Haines. Amazing.

An 'unforgivable' error

The Toronto Star, Canada's largest circulation newspaper, prints an unverified identity for a teenaged murder victim — and gets the name wrong. The newspaper's Kathy English describes it as the most egregious error in her three years as public editor.

Leonard Maltin on being a go-to guy for movie obituaries

He commented on Ark Linkletter's death while rafting along the Colorado River.

On the Endangered Species List, Part 6, Conclusion of Jim Nicholson's presentation to he Society of Professional Obituary Writers, April 24, 2010

Watch all 6 segments of Jim Nicholson's speech/Q&A from the Society of Professional Obituary Writers Convention on April 24, 2010, which are posted on Obituary Forum. This is #6.



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"Great Love Stories That Would Not Die" -- Part 5 of Jim Nicholson's presentation at 2010 Society of Professional Obituary Writers Convention

Thanks to my son, Zack Baranick, for converting the DVD of Jim's speech into a form that could be divided into segments and uploaded to YouTube as a courtesy for his mom.



One more segment to go. Watch for it Saturday, June 5, 2010.

'Did My Being Here Make a Difference?' Jim Nicholson asks Society of Professional Obituary Writers - Part 4 of 6

Part of the Grieving Chain: Jim Nicholson's Society of Professional Obituary Writers speech, Part 3

Jim Nicholson, retired award-winning Daily News obituary writer, said obit writers are part of the grieving chain in his speech at the Society of Professional Obituary Writers Convention at The Philadelphia Inquirer on April 24, 2010.

Jim Nicholson's speech to Society of Professional Obituary Writers, April 24, 2010 - Part 2 - The Desert

Here's Part 2 of Jim Nicholson's speech, which was graciously recorded by Jim's brother at the SPOW Convention at The Philadelphia Inquirer on April 24, 2010.

Jim Nicholson's speech to Society of Professional Obituary Writers, April 24, 2010 - Part 1, "Preaching to the preachers"

Cancer diagnosis, grammar and Dennis Hopper

In his obituary for Dennis Hopper in The Washington Post on May 29, 2010, Adam Bernstein wrote: Mr. Hopper, who enjoyed a career resurgence in the 1980s and 1990s playing alcoholics and compelling psychopaths in films including "Hoosiers," "Blue Velvet" and "Speed," had prostate cancer diagnosed last year.

As usual, Adam chose his words carefully and condensed lots of information into one sentence that is easy to read and grammatically correct.

The cancer part reminded me of copy editors at the Cleveland Plain Dealer informing me, "People are not diagnosed with cancer. The cancer is diagnosed."

That pronouncement and recommended ways to express that a medical professional has determined that a person has cancer or some other life-threatening condition have resulted in my rarely using any form of the word "diagnose" in obits. I'm so certain I'll mess it up.

I would appreciate knowing how other obit writers handle diagnoses.

JOB: Reporter wanted

>>From Freelance Job Openings

Experienced reporter needed to interview people who are at the end of lives about their experiences and insights. We pay per interview; if our edited version of your interview is used in our book, you will receive a byline for the chapter as well. Must have strong interviewing background and the ability to record interviews and submit mp3 or equivalent file for editing. You will work with doctors, nursing homes, hospices and your own network to identify subjects, set appointments, conduct interviews and send us the audio file. We will provide sample interviews and training, but the key to success will be your own compassion and talent as a reporter. Flexible hours based on availability of you and your subjects.

Every day, people receive terminal diagnoses; and every day, people die and their stories are lost forever. You will help those stories live on, creating a legacy for those whose knowledge and insights will otherwise disappear.

FMI: click here

Radio voices of baseball, part 2

Spencer Michlin, who suggested we share the James Moore piece about the late Philadelphia Phillies radio voice Ernie Harwell in the previous blog posting, shares his own thoughts as follows:

My thoughts on why he was important are identical to the reasons I think baseball and radio--and, especially, baseball on radio--are important.

Football and basketball might as well have been created for television right down to the shapes of the playing surfaces.

Basketball moves so fast that it’s difficult to describe fully as its happening. Radio announcers barely have time to do more than follow the ball, and in their breathless efforts to do that, have no chance to discuss the strategy of each fluid move and, certainly, no ability to discuss the beauty of the moves themselves.

Football works a little better on radio, but, even though the stop and start nature of the game allows the announcers to discuss strategy, it’s just so much more exciting to see the plays as they unfold.

But for me, if you can’t be at the ballpark, it’s better to listen to baseball on the radio. The game is so much bigger on the screen of your imagination than in HD, and it’s the announcers who make it so.

To this day, you can walk down a street in the Bronx and follow a Yankees game from radios on stoops and near windows without missing a play. Kids across the country still stay up past bedtime surreptitiously listening to their favorite team and keeping a box score by flashlight. A solitary car trip at night is made better by the calm and excited voices of men riding the ionosphere skip from a thousand miles away, describing the action on a diamond you’ll never see in life, a battle between two teams you don’t even care about--except on that one night.

Much has been overblown about baseball’s role as a part of our national fabric, but I say that—even beyond the game itself--baseball on the radio has, for generations, brought together the city and the farm, the forest and the harbor. Each game is its own story and voices like Ernie Harwell, Vin Scully, Red Barber, Mel Allen, and Harry Caray have been among America’s finest storytellers.

And let’s throw in Jack Graney of the Indians (this is more than being polite—when I was a kid in the early 50’s, my Dallas Eagles were a farm team of the Indians, and for many summers I’d listen to Graney describe the exploits of Avila, Boudreau, Doby, Feller and Easter.) Across America, this experience, varied only by the heroes involved, is part of who a great many of us are.

As for Harwell himself, James Moore describes his voice and impact better than I ever could:

“He was resonant and reassuring without being intrusive. Listeners heard confidence and kindliness as a subtext to his descriptions of baseball games. We thought we knew Mr. Harwell but he definitely knew us. Harwell understood that there was an almost sacred connection between fans and their teams and he always gave us reason to believe in happy outcomes…

“Mostly though, the Tiger’s legendary broadcaster sounded like summer.”

-- Spencer

James Moore writes about the late Ernie Harwell, silenced voice of the Detroit Tigers

Spencer Michlin, writer of obits, screenplays and commercials, suggested we share the James Moore piece about the late Ernie Harwell, whose voice became the harbinger of spring for Detroit baseball fans.

It was published on the Huffington Post today, May 5, 2010.

Moore writes of Harwell: He spoke the story of America in the metaphor of baseball. Learn to lose with grace and win with humility and never stop trying.

A beautifully crafted tribute, definitely worth reading.

2010 People's Picks

By now, Obituary Forum's faithful followers and the Society of Professional Obituary Writers (SPOW) members know that the results of the People's Picks online poll have no bearing in selecting winners of the official SPOW Awards.

We feel it's important to distinguish between the two honors. That's why we did not post the People's Picks results with the official SPOW Award winners. It's not like we forgot or anything. (That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.)

Winners of the People's Picks poll are as follows:

Best body of work (long-form) by one writer, based on exactly five obits, published in 2009 in a print or online news publication. (Long-form obits have 800 words or more.): Laurence Arnold, Bloomberg News.

Best body of work (short-form) by one writer, based on exactly five obits, published in 2009 in a print or online news publication: Maureen O'Donnell, Chicago Sun-Times.

Best long-form obituary about a well-known regional figure: Ron Csillag, Globe and Mail, "Clarence Peterson."

Best short-form obituary about a well-known regional figure: Evin Demirel, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, "Albert Zoppe."

Best long-form obituary about an Average Joe: Ron Hayes, The Coastal Star, "Bill Dunn."

Best short-form obituary about an Average Joe: Maureen O'Donnell, Chicago Sun-Times, "Danny Stanton."

Best obituary that goes beyond summing up a life: Maureen O'Donnell, Chicago Sun-Times, "Danny Stanton."

Best tribute, column, memoir or retrospective in print or online: Josh Farley, Kitsap Sun, "Robert and Darlene Moser."

Outstanding radio obituary: Natasha Gruneberg of BBC Radio for her obituary for Walter Cronkite.

Complete list of SPOW winners is posted on the awards page of the SPOW website.

Tributes to Jim Nicholson and Kay Powell

Tribute to Kay Powell
by Marilyn Johnson

Please do not tell her what to do, or presume to speak for her.

I'm serious. Do not impugn her sex, her country, her region, or her profession, which, by the way, is journalist, not obit writer.

She's the most fun person you could ever hope to hang with at a conference in a far flung city, but do not cross her and do not ignore her, and please go back and read her obituaries, which ran for more than a dozen years, creating a community that bridged the sexes, races, and regions and that included both the living and the dead. Steel and fire, humor and heart, and a sly subversive streak. Yes indeed.

When Eliza Bazemore died at either 114 or 115, our honored writer wrote several grafs on the reason her age was disputed and discussed other supercentenarians (as well as a destroyed bible)…but after saluting Ms. Bazemore in fitting fashion, the obit ends with the real reason her age was a mystery: Mrs. Bazemore wouldn't discuss the matter, and always said, "A woman who would tell her age would tell everything."

Our honored writer sent off a teacher of preachers-- a double down holy man, right?-- and without blinking, quoted his associate: "Mance was a hell of a teacher."

And this from the obit of Charlotte Walker, a late-blooming actress. Mrs. Walker's favorite role was that of a woman sitting on a porch in "Murder in Mississippi." "She is asked by the Blair Underwood character if she and her husband would go vote. 'We'll be free when we die,' was her line. In real life, she never missed a chance to vote and had participated in the civil rights movement. In September 2004, she shared her experiences with the massive oral history project, 'Voices of Civil Rights.'"

And here is the part that signifies our honoree, Kay Powell's, special genius. These accomplishments were wonderful, but you don't get an x-ray of our subject's heart until you get this detail: Mrs. Walker was instrumental in having the church's gospel choir on the same film's sound track. Mrs. Walker was fine and she was accomplished, and she took her people with her.

Kay Powell got what people did, but she really got what the women did -- how 99 year old Frances Rossman fought for 10 years to get her neighbor's junk vehicles removed, or how the docent talked her husband into colonial costume, complete with pantihose, and turned him into a candle dipper. Our writer recorded things that wouldn't have been recorded by anyone else, certainly not by her brother journalists, and she filled the pages of a major newspaper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, with people we still don't see enough of in newspapers-- more than anyone, Kay Powell has been responsible for fighting the historic sexual imbalance on the obit page. Kay has also helped create and nourish a community of obit writers and obituary lovers that is generous enough to embrace all comers, including my mother, who is a great fan of her martini earrings-- and Kay's community transcends all differences. She has helped give obituary writing a legitimate and respected place in journalism, and she has made us all proud….she is fine and she's accomplished and she takes her people -- that's us -- with her.

And for this, we honor and love her.



Tribute to Jim Nicholson
by Marilyn Johnson

Thomas "Mooseneck" Robinson.

Richard "Groove" Holmes.

Francis P. "Shaky" Kane, Truck Driver.

And Sister Clem, "who didn't fit the regular nun bill" and "could dispatch a hoagie with ease."

I can re-read their stories a hundred times and never tire of them, these characters who moved out of Philly (and their earthly existence) in the Eighties and Nineties-- my dear dead friends, introduced, summed up, and made unforgettable by Jim Nicholson. He cherished their quirks and measured their immeasurable contributions and laced their portraits with both plain talk and Biblical cadence. (He could also wiggle out of some pretty tight corners.) But most of all he saw. He saw his subjects in all their beautiful and bulbous glory. They had been invisible for so long in the pages of the big city papers, except as victims or perps. Certainly no one outside their neighborhood had ever celebrated them for being "the woman holding up the scenery" or the man with "the patience of a clam." He saw them for who they were. "'I'm not going to tell you a lie. Moose was a drinker.'"

Jim Nicholson gave us a portrait of the blue-collar city, the immigrant city, the black and white city, the individual troops who kept the city working. He buried newsmen with grace and a shrewd eye, like William J. Storm, "Perhaps the greatest 'house-end' reporter who ever worked in Philadelphia." Nicholson explained why knocking on doors after a tragedy to get quotes or material was an important job and a lost art and why Storm was its best practitioner-- he respected his subjects; he was compassionate.

When it came time for Jim to send off a fellow obit writer, he'd make sure there was some news in there to make it truly memorable. Remembering his friend Burr Van Atta, Jr., the obit writer for the rival Inquirer, Jim confessed that he and Burr used to shuffle their pages to make sure every family in Philly who wanted an obit got one. Shocking? Yes, but that compassionate detail guaranteed we'd remember the man.

The same can be said for Nicholson. Nancy Hass, the first of many people who insisted I talk to Jim, used to sit behind him at the Daily News where, for 19 years, he interviewed survivors in an effort to bring their loved ones to life in a portrait.

According to Nancy, "I would hear him speak to families, the regular folk he specialized in writing about, always using that courtly southern-fried voice. Didn't matter who they were, how poor, how weird. One day he was speaking to a woman whose uncle had died. They lived in a particularly lowbrow part of north Philly. All I could hear was his side of the conversation, but that was all I needed.

"'So everyone called him Mooseneck? Hmmm, that's sure an interesting nickname.

"'Okay ma'am, so what exactly did Mooseneck do, I mean, for a living?

"'Oh, so he just laid on the couch all day?'"

"Long pause. Nicholson's head started to bob, and he chuckled long and low. I wondered what he would say to her, what was there to say?

"'Well, you know I had an uncle like that, ma'am.'"

What made him laugh? How did she drink her coffee? How did he keep the shoes in his closet? These were ways to get at the heavier issues about life and death: What did he care about? Who did she love? And how did they find their time on earth? But they were also little brushes he used to add color and shade his portraits. It shouldn't surprise you that he is an elegant painter, a wonderful caretaker, and a loyal and dear friend. Knowing how he works, his laser attention, wholehearted commitment to the subject at hand, that courtly southern fried style-- you don't think he was going to let me get away with just a few stories, do you? No, he hounded me until I got it. I believe it in some quarters, is known as soul.

Jim, in those 19 years, you changed the faces that appeared on the obits page, and you changed our idea of what constitutes the well-lived life. You made your city and your country and the news business proud. And look at all these professionals cheering you, who know just what that took.

Awards for obituary writing presented at SPOW Convention in Philadelphia

Marilyn Johnson, author of “The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and The Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries,” made a surprise appearance at the 2010 Society of Professional Obituary Writers (SPOW) Convention Friday, April 23, 2010, to praise keynote speaker Jim Nicholson, retired Daily News obit writer, and announce that Kay Powell, former Atlanta Journal-Constitution obits editor, is the recipient of the SPOW Lifetime Achievement Award for 2010.

Jim, who was the first recipient of the honor, presented the award to Kay, who was uncharacteristically speechless.

Receiving top honors in the Body of Work category are Andrew Meacham of the St. Petersburg Times for long-form obits (over 800 words) and Evin Demirel, former Arkansas Democrat-Gazette obit writer, for short-form obits (under 800 words). Both men were present to accept their awards.

Andrew also won the award for the Best obituary that goes beyond summing up a life for his nontraditional obit for “Hope Witsell,” a 13-year-old girl who took her own life.

Tom Hawthorn won the SPOW Award for Best long-form obit about a well-known figure with his obit for "Frank Williams", which was published in the Globe and Mail of Canada.

Maureen O'Donnell of the Chicago Sun-Times won the SPOW Award for Best short-form obit about a well-known figure, “L. Scott Deatherage".

Winner of the Best long-form obit about an Average Joe is Ron Hayes, a freelance writer who penned the obit for “Bill Dunn” for The Coastal Star, Ocean Ridge, Fla.

The SPOW Award for short-form obit about an Average Joe went to Sally Downey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Sally says there was nothing average about her subject, "Hayward Ford," a master gardener.

Joan Harvey won the SPOW Award for Best tribute, column, memoir or retrospective for her Oregonian Op-Ed piece on teacher "George Katagiri.”

Natasha Gruneberg won the award for Outstanding Radio Obituary for the obit she put together on “Sir Clement Freud” for BBC Radio.

People's Picks Poll and SPOW Awards

Judging for the 2010 Society of Professional Obituary Writers (SPOW) Awards has been completed. Official SPOW Award winners have been selected. And the People's Picks poll is open for business.

The work of the top five finalists from each juried category has been posted for the "People's Picks" poll at http://www.obitwriters.org/contest.html. The public is invited to read the unidentified finalists' work and vote for their favorites.

However, the online poll will have no effect on the selection of official SPOW Award winners. The People's Picks poll is just for fun.

Official SPOW Awards will be presented and the results of the online poll will be announced during an awards luncheon on Friday, April 23, 2010, at the Philadelphia Inquirer during the SPOW Convention.

For convention registration, go to http://obitwriters2010.eventbrite.com/.

Early Bird Registration for SPOW Convention

Early Bird registration for the Society of Professional Obituary Writers Convention, which will take place April 22-24, 2010, in Philadelphia, ends Wednesday, March 31, 2010.

The discount on the already inexpensive registration fees may end then, but registration will continue after that. Same-day registration will also be available.

To register and/or to pay SPOW membership dues, go to
http://obitwriters2010.eventbrite.com/.

Tom Hobbs made The Guardian of London

Nigel Starck's obit for Tom Hobbs was published in The Guardian on March 23, 2010.

Here's the link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/mar/23/tom-hobbs-obituary