Focusing On The Sunny Side Of Obituary Writing

Author and journalist Heather Lende has spent nearly 20 years writing obituaries. Working for the Chillkat Valley News, a small newspaper in Haines, Alaska, has given her a unique insight into the community she covers and inspired her to write several books.

In her latest tome, "Find the Good," Lende shares some of the life lessons she's learned in the process of her work.

"Writing obituaries is my way of transcending bad news," she wrote. "It has taught me the value of intentionally trying to find the good in people and situations, and that practice -- and I do believe that finding the good can be practiced -- has made my life more meaningful."

Lende recently appeared on "A Beautiful World," a news program in Saint Paul, Minn., that focuses on inspirational stories from around the globe. You can listen to the extended interview here:





Want to win a copy of Lende's book? SPOW is giving away three free copies. To enter the drawing, simply send us an email and include your email and mailing addresses in the body as well as your reading format preference (ebook or hardcover). Deadline is June 30, 2015. Winners will be randomly chosen from all complete entries, and announced on The Obituary Forum.

From Obits To Arts, With Love

Andrew Meacham is stepping down, both from his position as SPOW's president and as the writer of the Tampa Bay Times' Epilogue obituary feature. Thankfully, he has agreed to remain an active member of the society, for which we are all very grateful.

As for his work with the newspaper, Meacham plans to transition to a different position, that of performing arts critic.

In his latest column, Meacham explained how much he enjoyed working on the death beat.

"Writing these obituaries — more than 1,000 in all — has been the best experience of my career," he wrote. "People have invited me into their homes, where they shared scrapbooks and old letters and memories of recently departed loved ones. It is impossible to overstate the graciousness I have experienced from these families at the worst times of their lives, or my gratitude at being able to tell those stories."

We all wish him great success in his new job.

Congrats To Maureen O'Donnell

Sun-Times obituary writer Maureen O'Donnell won the Anne Keegan Award on Friday for her “gifts of inquisitiveness and eye for the perfect anecdote.”

The honor, given by the Chicago Headline Club and named for the late Chicago Tribune columnist, was established in 2012 to recognize journalists “who tell stories of ordinary people in extraordinarily well-reported and well-written prose.”

Click here for more.

RIP Alana Baranick

It is with a sad heart that I share this news.

Alana Baranick, founder of the Society of Professional Obituary Writers and a long-time contributor to this forum, died on April 10 of cancer. She was 65.

Alana was an award-winning journalist who penned nearly 2,000 obituaries. She was also the co-author of "Life on the Death Beat," a champion of obituary writers and a dear friend.

Click here to read the wonderful obituary penned by Leila Atassi for The Plain Dealer.

Farewell, Alana. And rest in peace.

Thinking about obits, graphically

Early this morning, The Economist tweeted this chart to accompany its obituary of former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew:

Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore: An astonishing record http://t.co/G02XATYydF pic.twitter.com/H4gK3fyjrR

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) March 23, 2015

I admit, I haven't given much thought to showing the deceased's life in graphics. What are some interesting charts, maps and infographics you've used to accompany your stories?

Unique Cause Of Death Listed In Family-Written Obit

When Stephan Merrill of Winter Haven, Fla., died earlier this month, his family didn't have an exact cause of death to list in his newspaper obituary. So they made one up, and had a bit of fun with it.

“It was worth it for the family. It was the only time the family was able to laugh in days,” Merrill’s close friend, Andrew Albreacht, told the local ABC affiliate WFTS. “We were all laughing, and it made the situation easier to deal with.”

Click here for more.

Obituary Writing: A Complex System Of Building Up Trust

Kay Powell, retired obituary writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, recently had a delightful chat with Bill Nigut on the radio program "Two Way Street." Click below to get the inside scoop on her writing process and to hear a few anecdotes about the ordinary people who were the subjects of her stories.

JOB: Creative Obituary Writer

LifeObits.com is recruiting for independent obituary writers with creative, consultative and respectfully techniques to meet with clients and co-author pre-planned obituaries as well as obituaries as needed by family members.

FMI: Click here.

Quote of the day

"Cornelius stepped away from the window as a servant brought him the morning paper. He took his place in a comfortable recliner and opened first to the obituaries, as was his daily custom, to see if anyone he disliked had died, but sadly the announcements held no joy." --Larry Correia, "Hard Magic"

Making a List….

I'm compiling a list of the 50 best books for obituary writers. These are the memoirs, anthologies, novels and reference guides that every journalist assigned to the death beat should read.

Here are the eight we already feature on our website:

"The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries" by Marilyn Johnson

"Life After Death" by Nigel Starck

"Life on the Death Beat: A Handbook for Obituary Writers" by Alana Baranick, Stephen Miller and Jim Sheeler

"Deadlines: Obits of Memorable British Columbians" by Tom Hawthorn

"Obit: Inspiring Stories of Ordinary People Who Lived Extraordinary Lives" by Jim Sheeler

"If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name" by Heather Lende

"Final Salute" by Jim Sheeler

"Working the Dead Beat" by Sandra Martin

What other books should we include?

Oh you want this shirt? Here you go

You know that old cliche about the deceased giving someone the shirt off his/her back? Well, it's always wise to verify such a story before adding it to an obituary.

For example, when Oprah Winfrey eventually dies, her obit writers will be able to use a version of the line with confidence. Earlier this year, the talk show legend gave away a designer dress simply because a stranger asked her for it.

Cleveland Press Club honors obit writer

Obituary writer and SPOW member Mark Zaborney recently took second place in the Cleveland Press Club’s annual journalism competition.

Zaborney was honored for his obituary about Seymour Rothman, a veteran Blade columnist who "thrived among celebrities and everyday citizens."

Click here to read the obit.

Another one didn't "die"

Here's another one who didn't die. According to his obit in The Atlanta Journal Constitution, "John Dominic Jaramillo danced into spirit on June 6, 2014. He was a performing artist, professional Flamenco dancer, arts in education teacher, Native American educator, lover of life and collector of stories."
So, now you can add "danced into spirit"  to your collection of euphemisms for "died/"

a performing artist, professional Flamenco dancer, arts in education teacher, Native American educator, lover of life and collector of stories. - See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/atlanta/obituary.aspx?pid=171305172#sthash.27D5GrCX.dpuf

a performing artist, professional Flamenco dancer, arts in education teacher, Native American educator, lover of life and collector of stories. - See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/atlanta/obituary.aspx?pid=171305172#sthash.27D5GrCX.dpufHe 

a performing artist, professional Flamenco dancer, arts in education teacher, Native American educator, lover of life and collector of stories. - See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/atlanta/obituary.aspx?pid=171305172#sthash.27D5GrCX.dpuf

- See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/atlanta/obituary.aspx?pid=171305172

The bigger picture

When you write obituaries for a living, it's all too easy to become a creature of habit. You may ask family/friends the same questions over and over. Perhaps you use particular adjectives or phrases so often that they've become cliche. Or maybe you focus so much on the writing of an obit that you never think about examining the deceased's life in a new way (slideshows, audio interviews, video collages, Twitter tributes).

When this happens, it's a good idea to take a step back and start looking at the entire cemetery rather than the individual tombstone.

In the comments, please share your tips for bringing a fresh point of view to an obit. Do you read the competition? Study historical examples? Turn to technological upgrades for new ideas? How do you come up with new and interesting ways to tell the deceased's story?

On the death beat with Margalit Fox

Margalit Fox, a senior writer at The New York Times and the author of "The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code," has written more than 1,000 obituaries. Last week, in the "Story Behind The Story" column, she shared some of her experiences on the death beat.

"Almost every day, I am given a mystery to solve – the mystery of how a life was lived, and why that life, although it has run its course, matters vitally to us all.

For the past decade I have worked as an obituary news writer at The Times, most recently as a senior writer. The job – all-consuming, life-giving and never dull – is perhaps the strangest in American journalism but also one of the very best."

Click here for more.

Obit Writer Muses About Life, Love And Death

New York Times obituary writer Bruce Weber has published "Life Is a Wheel: Love Death, Etc., and a Bike Ride Across America," a new travelogue The Associated Press described as both "delightful" and "fascinating."

The book focuses on Weber and his decision at 57 to reprise the coast-to-coast bike ride he took 18 years earlier. The 4,122-mile adventure takes him more than 100 days to complete, with just a few days off for a wedding in New Orleans and a funeral in Los Angeles.

[Weber's] book is more than a chronicle of his two-wheel journey across endless prairie and farm fields and through countless small towns and suburbs. One of the most fascinating sections recalls the author's 1995 bike trip in Vietnam, a more gripping adventure than anything he encounters on his latest ride. He is arrested while riding alone in the jungle, then stranded without food or water, an episode he can now fondly look back on as "one of the great moments of my life."

For more information, click here.

Comments: Yea or Nay?

Should news organizations allow comments on obituaries?
	Yes
	Yes, but only if they're moderated
	No
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Obituary Legend Pens Manual On Military Intelligence And Life

Jim Nicholson, retired Philadelphia Daily News obituary writer and the recipient of The Society of Professional Obituary Writers' first Lifetime Achievement Award, has published "Because No One Else Can -- Inside the Military Intelligence Secret Sausage Factory," a new book on military intelligence and life.

In a recent blog post, SPOW President Andy Meacham noted: "Like his career, there is nothing expected or usual in 'Because No One Else Can -- Inside the Military Intelligence Secret Sausage Factory.' This nearly 800-page tome, available on Amazon, is as he says, a textbook for intelligence analysts. It is also a history book, a primer on strategic thinking and an an amazingly full inside view of the kinds of challenges intelligence agents face in a post 9-11 world."

Click here to learn more.

WaPo Publishes Obituary Collection

Looking for a stocking stuffer for the obit writer in your life? Here's just the thing.

On Dec. 10th, The Washington Post, in partnership with Diversion Books, published "21 Lives In 2013: Obituaries from The Washington Post." This 121-page ebook, written by the newspaper's top-notch obituary writers, commemorates the lives of Nelson Mandela, Chinua Achebe, Esther Williams, Virginia Johnson, Gussie Moran, Josh Burdette and many more. Marilyn Johnson, author of "The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs and The Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries," also penned the introduction.

Best of all? The book only costs $2.99. Click here to learn more.

Copy Editor Copy Edits His Own Obit

Michael J. Trojanowski, 77, a retired Detroit News copy editor, died on Nov. 9 of emphysema and complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. But before he died, the "consummate professional" reportedly copy edited his own obituary.

I wish I had met Trojanowski when he was alive. Not only was he a former journalist for the Associated Press, he was a fellow overnighter.