Jim Naughton, president emeritus of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, wrote a compelling piece titled "A Death Notice for Obituaries?" that appears in today's (Nov. 29, 2010) edition of Obit magazine.
Your thoughts?
Monday, November 29, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Her Final Martini
It's leads like this that instantly capture the subject and draw readers into the obit:"Bee Wood drank her final martini on November 14."
Though the rest of the family placed death notice is pretty standard,
you can read about this 90-year-old "red-haired spitfire" at
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/tallahassee/obituary.aspx?n=bee-wood&pid=146715370.
The tail of the death notice is the YouTube link to Bee singing "Sentimental Journey"
The obit ran in the Tallahassee Democrat on Nov. 21, 2010.
Though the rest of the family placed death notice is pretty standard,
you can read about this 90-year-old "red-haired spitfire" at
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/tallahassee/obituary.aspx?n=bee-wood&pid=146715370.
The tail of the death notice is the YouTube link to Bee singing "Sentimental Journey"
The obit ran in the Tallahassee Democrat on Nov. 21, 2010.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Dumbledore's obituary from "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"
Dumbledore friend Elphias Doge wrote an obit for the Hogwarts headmaster that was more of a tribute than a straightforward news obit. It was commentary, written from the perspective of an admirer.
In the obit, Doge didn't reveal any secrets that would make Dumbledore or his family seem less than saintly.
At the wedding reception (Bill Weasley marries Fleur Delacour, in case you didn't know), Ron Weasley’s nasty Auntie Muriel says to Doge, "I noticed how you skated over the sticky patches in that obituary of yours."
Doge replies, "I assure you I was writing from the heart."
Sounds familiar, even in the Muggle world.
Thursday, November 04, 2010
Congrats to Colleagues
Our magnificent colleagues Jade Walker and Jim Nicholson now can be viewed on the CBS News Sunday Morning obit writing segment posted on YouTube. They are smart and insightful. I'm included as the comic relief.
The video is also in a post right below this one.
The Sunday Morning crew, talented producer Steve Glauber and noted interviewer Jeff Greenfield shadowed Society of Professional Obituary Writers at our 2010 conference in Philadelphia for the piece. They did an excellent job of editing our riveting interviews and adding New York Times interviews and visuals.
None of this would have come about were it not for the multi-year, tireless efforts of SPOW founder (though she resists being identified as such) Alana Baranick.
Thanks to all for so artfully presenting our craft and professional society to the world.
The video is also in a post right below this one.
The Sunday Morning crew, talented producer Steve Glauber and noted interviewer Jeff Greenfield shadowed Society of Professional Obituary Writers at our 2010 conference in Philadelphia for the piece. They did an excellent job of editing our riveting interviews and adding New York Times interviews and visuals.
None of this would have come about were it not for the multi-year, tireless efforts of SPOW founder (though she resists being identified as such) Alana Baranick.
Thanks to all for so artfully presenting our craft and professional society to the world.
Monday, November 01, 2010
"Offering the Last Word" on CBS Sunday Morning
CBS newsman Jeff Greenfield (pictured right), his producer Steve Glauber and a crew from CBS Sunday Morning spent the first day of the 2010 Society of Professional Obituary Writers (SPOW) convention at the Philadelphia Inquirer in April, interviewing obit writers and taping some portions of the gathering.They were preparing a segment on obituaries for the Sunday morning TV magazine show.
They let us know several weeks later that they also would be interviewing folks at the New York Times about "Profiles 9/11/01," the compilation of mini-obits the paper ran on victims of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center for the segment.
The finished product, which finally aired as part of show's Halloween presentation of Oct. 31, 2010, focused on "everyman" obits, done by such writers as Jim Nicholson (pictured above left) for the Philadelphia Daily News and Kay Powell (pictured right) for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.Among the highlights was the life-and-death philosophy of Jade Walker (pictured below), creator of the Blog of Death:
"Obits only have one line that deals with death. The rest of the story is about the amazing lives that people lead." "Life is short. You have to make the most of it. I don't wait until the last moment to tell someone I love them. I don't wait to take that trip I've always wanted to take."
Click here to read the transcript.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
"Death Notice" = Page Gripper
"Death Notice" is more than a page turner. It's a page gripper.A couple of wrong takes on obit writers -- the protagonist is one -- don't mar this riveting mystery. Though, they do promote a stereotype beginning with author Todd Ritter's book jacket bio.
Ritter, pictured here and a New Jersey Star-Ledger reporter, tells us he has "interviewed celebrities, covered police standoffs, and even written obituaries."
Even?
Main character Henry Goll, Perry Hollow [PA] Gazette obit writer predictably referred to in the newsroom as Henry Ghoul, is asked, "Do you ever miss being a reporter?"
Goll's response, "I'm an obituary writer. Not a reporter."
Wrong.
Get past a few professional gaffs and get engrossed in this complex mystery where everyone is a believable suspect in small town Perry Hollow's first murder.
Ritter weaves an engaging story with enough of the macabre to have readers wondering if he experienced it himself to add such riveting detail. Was he buried alive? Were his lips sewn together? Has he floated in a pine coffin in a lake? Sniffed formaldehyde?
As journalists and obit writers, we've all had our share of bizarro -- the death notice faxed to obits just hours before the person commits suicide . . . or is murdered. But, would we let our jobs propel us into endangering our own lives?
Just released by Minotaur Books, "Death Notice" is a standout first novel. Read other reviews online and on Ritter's Web page: http://www.toddritteronline.com/. For this review, we wanted to examine how Ritter treats his obit writer. Goll is believable.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Outspoken Mime
Michael Sorkin wrote an obit for the Oct. 19, 2010, edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about Tim Thornton, a mime known professionally as Tim Angelo, who was exposed to cancer-causing Agent Orange while serving with the military in Vietnam.
Click here to read about the mime's life, military service and simultaneous battles with cancer and the government.
I love the way Michael ended the piece:
In his death notice Sunday in the Post-Dispatch, his family remembered him with the line: "A mime is a terrible thing to waste."
Click here to read about the mime's life, military service and simultaneous battles with cancer and the government.
I love the way Michael ended the piece:
In his death notice Sunday in the Post-Dispatch, his family remembered him with the line: "A mime is a terrible thing to waste."
Thursday, October 14, 2010
At Long Last: CBS Sunday Morning to Air Segment Mentioning Society of Professional Obituary Writers
Jeff Greenfield, producer Steve Glauber and a CBS News crew spent the first day of the Society of Professional Obituary Writers (SPOW) convention at the Philadelphia Inquirer in April 2010 to gather information, interview some SPOW members and record conference happenings for a CBS Sunday Morning segment.
Since that time, the CBS folks have conducted more research and more interviews on the subject of obits for the segment. Over the summer, CBS Sunday Morning has focused on covering mostly breaking news stories and rerunning previously aired segments.
Today we were told that the obits segment is scheduled to air on Oct. 31, 2010. Yep! Halloween! Seems kind of appropriate with tombstones and all that jazz, dontcha think?
Set your DVRs to record the show so you don't miss it. But bear in mind that the Halloween obits segment might be bumped and rescheduled for a later date.
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
A life in clips
The Guardian's obituary of comic film actor Norman Wisdom is brilliantly presented online with written introductions to a succession of clips.
Saturday, October 02, 2010
Posting faces to go with the names
Tom Hawthorn posted the previous blog item about an obit written by Andrew Meacham for the St. Petersburg Times.
Both men are top winners of Society of Professional Obituary Writers Awards.
Thought you might like to associate their faces with their names.
Here's a photo of Tom from his own blog, http://tomhawthorn.blogspot.com/.
Here's Andy.
Cute guys, eh?
Both men are top winners of Society of Professional Obituary Writers Awards.
Thought you might like to associate their faces with their names.
Here's a photo of Tom from his own blog, http://tomhawthorn.blogspot.com/.
Here's Andy.Cute guys, eh?
Friday, October 01, 2010
Cruel reader comment leads to writing of formal obituary
An offensive and, it must be noted, idiotic comment by a reader left online for a short news story about the hit-and-run death of a restaurant dishwasher in Florida led the St. Petersburg Times to assign a formal obituary.
ST. PETERSBURG — About 11 p.m. Sept. 12, a car struck Neil Alan Smith and threw him off his bicycle on Fourth Street N. The car didn't stop.
Mr. Smith, who was pedaling home from his job as a dishwasher at the Crab Shack, struck his head on a light post.
He was taken to Bayfront Medical Center. He died there six days later. He was 48.
Police have not located the hit-and-run driver.
Shortly after the St. Petersburg Times announced Mr. Smith's death on its website, a reader posted a comment stating the following: A man who is working as a dishwasher at the Crab Shack at the age of 48 is surely better off dead.
Web editors removed the comment, deeming it an offensive and insensitive insult to a dead man's friends and family. Though hardly unusual — check out the comments beneath stories about any recent tragedy — this one spurred the Times to make Mr. Smith the subject of this story, as a reminder that every life matters.
This much is certain about Mr. Smith: A number of people miss him.
He had a small but loyal network of co-workers and friends who are planning soon to celebrate his life.
They all describe Mr. Smith as steady and dependable. He rode his bicycle nearly 4 miles each way from the Hollywood Trailer Park on Fourth Street N to the Crab Shack on Gandy Boulevard, where he had worked for the past 10 years. In a business known for turnover, that is considered a long time.
"I'll probably go through another 10 people to find somebody like him," said Tyrone Dayhoff, 53, the Crab Shack's manager.
He started out busing tables and was very fast, but preferred the shelter of his dishwashing station in the back of the kitchen. He could listen to sports talk radio there.
Amid the steam and the withering heat of the dishwashing machine, he didn't have to make small talk. He liked to sit out back on cigarette breaks, in a plastic chair with his back to the walk-in freezer and facing a wooden fence and beyond it, the Gandy Bridge. Or he rode his bicycle to a nearby RaceTrac station to refill his giant soda cup.
He restocked the shelves with the pots, pans and dishes he had washed, hosed down the rubber mats and swept and mopped the floors. Mr. Smith earned $7.25 an hour, Florida's minimum wage.
Jeff Lackey, who lives across the street from Mr. Smith's address at Hollywood Park, recalled one of the rare conversations Mr. Smith initiated.
"I was coming back from the Dumpster and he invited me over," said Lackey, 53. "He said, 'Jeff, I've worked at Crab Shack for 10 years. I never got a raise or a Christmas bonus. I never even got a card.' "
At the end of his shift — the palms of his hands wrinkled and white — he grabbed two Budweisers from the bar, his unofficial but openly acknowledged gratuity, and pedaled home.
Mr. Smith did not talk much about his past, friends and co-workers said. Both his parents are deceased. Police list Debra Coito of Haverhill, Mass., as his sister. Friends say she was a twin, but that he almost never mentioned her. Records show a Debra Coito in Massachusetts with the same birth date as Mr. Smith's. She could not be reached for comment for this story.
"He set his boundaries," said Peggy Rogers, 56, his roommate of six years. "He didn't pry into your business, so you just kind of respected that and you didn't do that to him."
He told friends he had been married and divorced, had managed a gas station in New Hampshire before moving to Florida in 1999. He got a concession stand job at Derby Lane, then started working at the Crab Shack.
He lived in a mobile home near the restaurant and paid rent to the owner, Bonnie Schaeffer-Mott. Once, when she feared the power company would shut off the electricity, she asked Mr. Smith for help.
He gave her more than what she had asked to borrow and insisted she take it. "I'll never forget that," said Schaeffer-Mott, 51.
Mr. Smith bought his own trailer at the Snug Harbor Mobile Home Park, but home ownership didn't last long. A developer bought the park in 2006, forcing residents out. Mr. Smith and Rogers, then a Crab Shack waiter, moved to two other mobile home parks before settling at Hollywood Park.
He rarely strayed from work or home. On days off he drank a few Budweisers and watched sports, especially his beloved Red Sox, Celtics and Patriots. Rogers wouldn't let him smoke inside, so he sat on the porch with a Marlboro and headphones listening to Aerosmith or Celine Dion.
"Oh, my gaaahhd, she's the best sinnga on the plaaaahhnet," he would say in his New England accent.
He broke no laws, other than a 2007 open-container violation.
Every year, Rogers put up a small artificial Christmas tree and decorated it. "I kind of forced him" to celebrate holidays, Rogers said. She gave him a mountain bike after his was stolen, and bought extra reflectors for his birthday. Because it was important not to wait, she gave him the reflectors Sept. 10, before his birthday.
Two days later, Mr. Smith had nearly finished the bike ride home from work and was just a block from the mobile home park when a car hit his bicycle from the rear in the 7300 block of Fourth Street N. Witnesses reported it was a white or light-colored midsized sedan — possibly a Ford Taurus or Mercury Sable. Police said that Mr. Smith was following bicycle safety recommendations such as wearing light-colored clothing, using reflectors and riding in the bicycle lane.
His head struck a metal light pole. He never regained consciousness.
After examining his wallet, police went to the Crab Shack first, then to Rogers' mobile home. At 11:30 p.m., they knocked on her door.
For six days, Mr. Smith lay unresponsive in Bayfront Medical Center. Rogers brought in a CD player and played Celine Dion.
Mr. Smith died Sept. 18, three days before his 49th birthday.
Dayhoff, his boss at Crab Shack, read the story on the Times website and found himself outraged by unsympathetic comments posted by some readers.
"I just can't get over some of those people reacting the way they did," he said. "This guy was a human being. He might not have meant something to somebody else, but he was like family to us. He meant something to us."
On Sept. 21, Mr. Smith's birthday, Rogers drank one of the two beers he had left in the refrigerator and talked on the phone to Schaeffer-Mott.
Once Mr. Smith's body is cremated, Schaeffer-Mott wants to take his remains to Boston, then New Hampshire. Maybe she will spread a pinch outside the Boston Garden and Fenway Park, where the Celtics and Red Sox play.
Then she hopes to go to New Hampshire and put the rest of his remains at his parents' graves — if she can find them.
She will call Rogers, who will then drink the remaining beer in the refrigerator.
They will toast the memory of a solitary man who knew his likes and lived within his means, a man who could be counted upon.
Andrew Meacham can be reached at (727) 892-2248 or ameacham@sptimes.com.
Hit-and-run victim was quiet and dependable, co-workers say
By Andrew Meacham, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Wednesday, September 29, 2010
In Print: Wednesday, September 29, 2010
ST. PETERSBURG — About 11 p.m. Sept. 12, a car struck Neil Alan Smith and threw him off his bicycle on Fourth Street N. The car didn't stop.
Mr. Smith, who was pedaling home from his job as a dishwasher at the Crab Shack, struck his head on a light post.
He was taken to Bayfront Medical Center. He died there six days later. He was 48.
Police have not located the hit-and-run driver.
Shortly after the St. Petersburg Times announced Mr. Smith's death on its website, a reader posted a comment stating the following: A man who is working as a dishwasher at the Crab Shack at the age of 48 is surely better off dead.
Web editors removed the comment, deeming it an offensive and insensitive insult to a dead man's friends and family. Though hardly unusual — check out the comments beneath stories about any recent tragedy — this one spurred the Times to make Mr. Smith the subject of this story, as a reminder that every life matters.
This much is certain about Mr. Smith: A number of people miss him.
He had a small but loyal network of co-workers and friends who are planning soon to celebrate his life.
They all describe Mr. Smith as steady and dependable. He rode his bicycle nearly 4 miles each way from the Hollywood Trailer Park on Fourth Street N to the Crab Shack on Gandy Boulevard, where he had worked for the past 10 years. In a business known for turnover, that is considered a long time.
"I'll probably go through another 10 people to find somebody like him," said Tyrone Dayhoff, 53, the Crab Shack's manager.
He started out busing tables and was very fast, but preferred the shelter of his dishwashing station in the back of the kitchen. He could listen to sports talk radio there.
Amid the steam and the withering heat of the dishwashing machine, he didn't have to make small talk. He liked to sit out back on cigarette breaks, in a plastic chair with his back to the walk-in freezer and facing a wooden fence and beyond it, the Gandy Bridge. Or he rode his bicycle to a nearby RaceTrac station to refill his giant soda cup.
He restocked the shelves with the pots, pans and dishes he had washed, hosed down the rubber mats and swept and mopped the floors. Mr. Smith earned $7.25 an hour, Florida's minimum wage.
Jeff Lackey, who lives across the street from Mr. Smith's address at Hollywood Park, recalled one of the rare conversations Mr. Smith initiated.
"I was coming back from the Dumpster and he invited me over," said Lackey, 53. "He said, 'Jeff, I've worked at Crab Shack for 10 years. I never got a raise or a Christmas bonus. I never even got a card.' "
At the end of his shift — the palms of his hands wrinkled and white — he grabbed two Budweisers from the bar, his unofficial but openly acknowledged gratuity, and pedaled home.
Mr. Smith did not talk much about his past, friends and co-workers said. Both his parents are deceased. Police list Debra Coito of Haverhill, Mass., as his sister. Friends say she was a twin, but that he almost never mentioned her. Records show a Debra Coito in Massachusetts with the same birth date as Mr. Smith's. She could not be reached for comment for this story.
"He set his boundaries," said Peggy Rogers, 56, his roommate of six years. "He didn't pry into your business, so you just kind of respected that and you didn't do that to him."
He told friends he had been married and divorced, had managed a gas station in New Hampshire before moving to Florida in 1999. He got a concession stand job at Derby Lane, then started working at the Crab Shack.
He lived in a mobile home near the restaurant and paid rent to the owner, Bonnie Schaeffer-Mott. Once, when she feared the power company would shut off the electricity, she asked Mr. Smith for help.
He gave her more than what she had asked to borrow and insisted she take it. "I'll never forget that," said Schaeffer-Mott, 51.
Mr. Smith bought his own trailer at the Snug Harbor Mobile Home Park, but home ownership didn't last long. A developer bought the park in 2006, forcing residents out. Mr. Smith and Rogers, then a Crab Shack waiter, moved to two other mobile home parks before settling at Hollywood Park.
He rarely strayed from work or home. On days off he drank a few Budweisers and watched sports, especially his beloved Red Sox, Celtics and Patriots. Rogers wouldn't let him smoke inside, so he sat on the porch with a Marlboro and headphones listening to Aerosmith or Celine Dion.
"Oh, my gaaahhd, she's the best sinnga on the plaaaahhnet," he would say in his New England accent.
He broke no laws, other than a 2007 open-container violation.
Every year, Rogers put up a small artificial Christmas tree and decorated it. "I kind of forced him" to celebrate holidays, Rogers said. She gave him a mountain bike after his was stolen, and bought extra reflectors for his birthday. Because it was important not to wait, she gave him the reflectors Sept. 10, before his birthday.
Two days later, Mr. Smith had nearly finished the bike ride home from work and was just a block from the mobile home park when a car hit his bicycle from the rear in the 7300 block of Fourth Street N. Witnesses reported it was a white or light-colored midsized sedan — possibly a Ford Taurus or Mercury Sable. Police said that Mr. Smith was following bicycle safety recommendations such as wearing light-colored clothing, using reflectors and riding in the bicycle lane.
His head struck a metal light pole. He never regained consciousness.
After examining his wallet, police went to the Crab Shack first, then to Rogers' mobile home. At 11:30 p.m., they knocked on her door.
For six days, Mr. Smith lay unresponsive in Bayfront Medical Center. Rogers brought in a CD player and played Celine Dion.
Mr. Smith died Sept. 18, three days before his 49th birthday.
Dayhoff, his boss at Crab Shack, read the story on the Times website and found himself outraged by unsympathetic comments posted by some readers.
"I just can't get over some of those people reacting the way they did," he said. "This guy was a human being. He might not have meant something to somebody else, but he was like family to us. He meant something to us."
On Sept. 21, Mr. Smith's birthday, Rogers drank one of the two beers he had left in the refrigerator and talked on the phone to Schaeffer-Mott.
Once Mr. Smith's body is cremated, Schaeffer-Mott wants to take his remains to Boston, then New Hampshire. Maybe she will spread a pinch outside the Boston Garden and Fenway Park, where the Celtics and Red Sox play.
Then she hopes to go to New Hampshire and put the rest of his remains at his parents' graves — if she can find them.
She will call Rogers, who will then drink the remaining beer in the refrigerator.
They will toast the memory of a solitary man who knew his likes and lived within his means, a man who could be counted upon.
Andrew Meacham can be reached at (727) 892-2248 or ameacham@sptimes.com.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Games people play: Name that obit!
Have you heard about the new obit-related contest called "Mystery Obit?"Each weekday from Monday, Sept. 13, 2010, through Monday, Oct. 11, 2010, Todd Ritter, author of the soon-to-be-released mystery titled "Death Notice," will post a brief obituary of some unnamed famous person.
Game players will be asked to guess the identity of the person identified in the obit.
The way the contest description is worded, it's unclear to me whether all of the mystery obits are for historic figures or at least for the already dead.
Real prizes are involved in this contest: a basket of mystery books courtesy of St. Martin's Minotaur and an autographed copy of Todd Ritter's "Death Notice," which will be released Oct. 12, 2010. (Sorry. No cash.)
Visit Ritter's Mystery Obit Contest page for details.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Steve Buttry blogs about Kay Powell
Read what Steve Buttry has to say about the Society of Professional Obituary Writers' Lifetime Achievemenat Award recipient, Kay Powell, on his blog, "Pursuing the Complete Community Connection."
Friday, July 02, 2010
Common cause of death nicely put
The family of the late Eva L. Grover, widow of a Methodist minister, used an interesting choice of words in the obit that appeared in today's (July 2, 2010) Medina County Gazette in Medina, Ohio, to explain how she died.
Eva L. Grover, 81, stepped into eternity peacefully, Wednesday, June 30, 2010, at West View Manor in Wooster, after a valiant fight with the kind of things that just make our bodies quit on us when we get on in years.
Eva L. Grover, 81, stepped into eternity peacefully, Wednesday, June 30, 2010, at West View Manor in Wooster, after a valiant fight with the kind of things that just make our bodies quit on us when we get on in years.
Thursday, July 01, 2010
Gallows humor from the San Francisco Chronicle, June 30, 2010
Public Eavesdropping
"She made kreplach to die for, and then she died."
Middle-aged lady having lunch with friends, overheard at Zuni by Norman Vogel
"She made kreplach to die for, and then she died."
Middle-aged lady having lunch with friends, overheard at Zuni by Norman Vogel
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
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.
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Leonard Maltin on being a go-to guy for movie obituaries
He commented on Ark Linkletter's death while rafting along the Colorado River.
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