Jim Sheeler, Roy Peter Clark and Mallory Tenore chat about stories of life and death

Jim Sheeler

Did you miss the realtime online chat featuring Jim Sheeler (Pulitzer Prize winner, Case Western Reserve University professor), Roy Peter Clark (Poynter) and Mallory Tenore (Poynter) mentioned in the previous post by Jade Walker?

You can still check out what was covered by visiting the Poynter chat on How to Report & Write Stories of Life, Death.

Live chat: How to report & write stories about life & death

Jim Sheeler, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his “Final Salute” series, and writing coach Roy Peter Clark will chat about writing stories of life and death today at 3 p.m. ET. Click here to participate in the conversation. Twitter users can also ask questions ahead of time using the hashtag #poyntertweets.

Lieutenant-Colonel Jeffery Williams (1920-2011)

A swell obituary in The Telegraph of a Canadian military historian who was the last member of the paper's obituarists to have served in the Second World War.

The 2011 Grimmies, a.k.a. Society of Professional Obituary Writers Awards, Have Been Presented

And the winners are:

Larken Bradley

The 2011 SPOW Lifetime Achievement in Obituary Writing Award was presented to Larken Bradley, who writes obits for the West Marin Citizen in the San Francisco area and does custom obits for clients, at an awards luncheon at Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., on May 13, 2011. Her website is: http://obituarywriters.com/.

The list of official SPOW Award recipients are as follows:

Best Body of Work in Obituary Writing (Long Form): Philip Fine, Globe and Mail.

Best Body of Work in Obituary Writing (Short Form): Maureen O'Donnell, Chicago Sun Times.

Best Obit about an Internationally Known Figure: Sandra Martin, Globe and Mail, for her Jackie Burroughs obit.

Best Obituary Tribute: Tom Hawthorn, Globe and Mail, for his Gene Kiniski obit.

Best Obituary (Short Form) about a Well-Known Regional Figure: Maureen O'Donnell, Chicago Sun Times, for her Joseph Sterling obit.

Best Obituary (Long Form) about a Well-Known Regional Figure: Amy Rabideau Silvers, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, for her Lorrie Otto obituary.

Best Obituary (Short Form) about an Average Joe: Amy Rabideau Silvers, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, for her Evelyn Fefer obituary.

Best Obituary (Long Form) about an Average Joe: Andrew Meacham, St. Petersburg Times, for his Neal Alan Smith obit.

Winners of the People's Picks, an online poll that is open to the public but has no bearing on the outcome of the official Grimmies judging, are:

Body of Work (Long Form): Ron Csillag, Globe and Mail;

Body of Work (Short Form): Mark Zaborney, Toledo Blade.

Internationally Known Figure: Dave Hoekstra, Chicago Sun Times, for his Solomon Burke obit.

Best Obituary Tribute: Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times, for his Tony Curtis obituary.

Best Obituary (Long Form) about an Average Joe: Ron Csillag, Globe and Mail, for his Fred Huffman obit.

Best Obituary (Short Form) about an Average Joe: Maureen O'Donnell, Chicago Sun Times, for her obituary for The DeMuros.

Best Obituary (Long Form) about a Well-Known Regional Figure: Maureen O'Donnell, Chicago Sun Times, for her Jim Cole obit.

Best Obituary (Short Form) about a Well-Known Regiona Figure: Maureen O'Donnell, Chcago Sun Times, for her Joe Vito obituary.

Legacy.com announces partnership with Society of Professional Obituary Writers to showcase obits for everyday people

Press release from Legacy.com:

LEADING MEMORIAL SITE PARTNERS WITH OBITUARY WRITERS TO SPOTLIGHT OBITS FOR “ORDINARY” PEOPLE

With help from the Society of Professional Obituary Writers, Legacy.com shares newspaper obituaries for teachers, homemakers and others

EVANSTON, Ill. – There’s no shortage of places to read the life stories of celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson. But too often the obituaries of less well-known people go unnoticed. A new feature launched by online memorial leader Legacy.com seeks to change that by highlighting obituaries for ordinary people who led extraordinary lives – or who simply had exceptionally interesting obituaries.

Through a newly-formed partnership with the Society of Professional Obituary Writers, Legacy.com – which hosts the obituary sections of 900-plus newspapers in the United States and around the world – is showcasing stories not only of movie stars and pop singers, but also of teachers, restaurant servers, homemakers and more.

“We’re delighted to share with our millions of users some of the amazing life stories that are published in newspapers every day,” said Legacy.com President and CEO Stopher Bartol. “By combining our resources with those of the nation’s leading obituary writers, we not only drive traffic to newspaper obituaries, but also help satisfy the appetite of readers for interesting stories and the desire by families for their loved ones’ legacies to be remembered.”

Examples include:
*A devoted married couple who died four days apart, 65 years after they first met.
*A schoolteacher who, at 98, recalled the names of students she had taught half a century earlier. (They remembered her, too.)
*A popular parking meter prosecutor. (Yes, you read that right.)

The highlighted obituaries, regularly added to a Legacy.com blog called The Obit Report that links to the newspaper where the obituary was originally published, are often inspirational – and occasionally funny.

For example, the family of Rose Davis provided a lighthearted accounting of her birth and life, as well as their eventual reunion with her in heaven: We miss you dearly and know that we'll meet again. But, not too soon.

The Obit Report initiative was partly the result of a report by the Medill School of Journalism that found “people interested in obituaries – compelling stories about noteworthy lives – are a sizeable, highly engaged potential audience.”

“The Medill team zeroed in on the fact that people enjoy reading stories about people, whether they’re famous or not,” Bartol said, noting that obituaries are among the most visited sections of newspapers. “Given that Legacy.com publishes thousands of newspaper obituaries each day and SPOW is comprised of award-winning journalists who are passionate about obituaries, the partnership positions us well to identify great content and share it with a broader audience.”

Said Alana Baranick, SPOW director: “The Society of Professional Obituary Writers is delighted that Legacy.com has made The Obit Report a forum on which to spotlight obits about ordinary people who lived extraordinary lives. We're sharing life stories that are beautifully or cleverly written by professional journalists as well as family-prepared obits that capture our attention for a variety of reasons.”

The Obit Report is currently available at www.legacy.com and via Legacy.com’s Facebook page.

ABOUT LEGACY.COM
Founded in 1998, Legacy.com is the world’s most timely and comprehensive resource for online obituaries and the undisputed leader in Web-based memorialization. With 18 million unique visitors each month, the Legacy.com domain is among the 100 most visited on the Internet.

Legacy.com’s network includes thousands of newspapers and funeral homes in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia. By making interactive memorial content accessible directly via the websites of newspapers and funeral homes, Legacy.com helps people expand the ways in which they can express condolences and share remembrances of loved ones. A privately held company, Legacy.com is headquartered in Evanston, Ill.

ABOUT SPOW
The Society of Professional Obituary Writers is a group of journalists who write, produce and present obituaries for newspapers and other news entities. SPOW spotlights the art of obituary writing while helping obituary writers improve their craft.

NYTimes obit writer talks about Bin Laden obit

Sounds like it was barely updated over a decade ... I bet this isn't one of those where the subject cooperates.

People's Picks and the Grimmies (SPOW Awards) will be announced May 13

at an awards luncheon at Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., during the 2011 Society of Professional Obituary Writers Conference.

For conference details, visit our conference page.

People's Picks for Internationally Famous Individual

Read about these famous people by clicking their names:
Miep Gies
Jean Charpentier
Howard O. Jones
Solomon Burke
Jackie Burroughs

People's Picks for Short-form Regional Figure

Click the names, read the obits, then decide.
Carolyn Rodgers
Joe Vito
Joseph Sterling
Leigh Van Valen
Robert "Squirrel" Lester

Long-form Obits for Average Joes await the People's Picks

The Long-form Average Joe finalists are:
Fred Huffman
Neal Alan Smith
Patricia Travers
Margaret St. James
Jim and Bettie Wise
Got a favorite?

People's Picks for Long-form Regional Figure

Finalists in the Long-form Regional Figure category for the SPOW and its People's Picks honors are:
Arturo Petterino
Lorrie Otto
Marylena Graves
Jim Cole
Laura Legge

People's Picks for Short-form Average Joe obit

The finalists for SPOW Awards for Short-form obits about Average Joes are:
Patricia and Lou DeMuro
Denise Hodges
Evelyn Fefer
Kendall Tapley
Mark Butler
Michael Schwass

You'll notice we've got six finalists in this category. That's because we had three obits tied for the final two slots in the top five. This seemed like the best way to handle it.

People's Picks for obit tributes

Some famous people are featured in the top entries of the Tribute category of the 2011 Society of Professional Obituary Writers competition.

If you like the obit for Tony Curtis, prefer the one for Solomon Burke or think one for a person you've never heard of is the most awesome, that's dandy.

But please don't choose the movie star because he's your all-time favorite actor or the soul singer because you like his music.

Please choose the obit that moves you, informs you and/or entertains you.

Click the name to read the obit.
Tony Curtis

Solomon Burke

Gene Kiniski

Jim Wakefield

Ronald Chase Sr.

People's Picks: Short-form Body of Work

Click each "lettered" obit writer. Read all five obits that were written by that individual. Then choose your favorite.

Obit writer F

Obit writer G

Obit writer H

Obit writer I

Obit writer J

The People's Picks Poll: The Unofficial Popularity Contest for Obit Writing

Click here to read Obit writer A's 5 obits.

Obit writer B's work is here.

Here's Obit writer C's entry.

And Obit writer D.

And finally Obit writer E.

These are the five finalists for the Long-form Body of Work category of the 2011 Society of Professional Obituary Writer's Awards for obit writing.

And this is the first installment of the 2011 SPOW People's Picks Poll.

This just-for-fun exercise allows the public to let us know which obits and obit writers they like best. It has no bearing on the official winners. A panel of obituary professionals has already selected the winners in all eight categories as well as the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award.

(I know, I know. Obit writers getting awards for "body" of work and "lifetime" achievement does seem a bit ironic.)

All entries are presented without bylines, headlines or photos. The obits have to stand on their own.

And they do!

To the contestants: Great work!

Lifetime summed up in four words or less

Lou Wigdor, senior writer and editor for the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts, wrote about "reader-penned necros" from the Daily Hampshire Gazette for his Wig & Pen blog.

He hopes you'll find the piece entertaining.

Public Eavesdropping in the San Francisco Chronicle

"I haven't read the obituaries yet. I'm saving them for dessert." Elderly man reading the newpaper and talking to his mate, overheard at the French Hotel in Berkeley by Robin May.

Avoiding the 'knight in shining armor' and other obituary cliches

I recently conducted an obit workshop at the 2011 CMA-CBI Spring College Media Convention in New York City called "Death Is Your Editor." Over the course of an hour, I talked about how to:

* breathe life into obituary writing
* research a subject you can’t interview
* avoid the curse of the cliche
* write the last word on someone’s life

Then I had the audience pen the opening lines of their own obits. Here is one attendee's take on the workshop.

Awkward

The Guardian discovers a convicted criminal wrote an obituary of one of his victims. Chris Elliott, whose title is reader's editor, writes about contributions published in good faith.

Writing Obits: A mini tutorial

For the briefest tutorial ever on obit writing, check out this obitpage.com podcast link.
Carolyn Gilbert, founder of Obitpage.com, interviews Kay Powell in this podcast. It takes several minutes to view.
While you're on the page, check out the other obit podcasts posted regularly by Gilbert and Dr. Cory Franklin.
Those podcasts are online obits for the dead. I am Kay Powell, and I am not dead.

Another byline for the NYTimes counterpart of Dr. Death

Donn Downey of the Globe and Mail. Mel Gussow of the New York Times.

Both wrote advance obits for Elizabeth Taylor, whose famous hospital stays probably outnumbered her movie roles.

And the indomitable Ms. Taylor outlived both obit writers.

Mara Gray posted a brief article about Gussow for AOL News titled "Elizabeth Taylor's Obit Writer Died 6 Years Ago".

Another byline for the late Dr. Death

A full-page obit of Elizabeth Taylor in the March 24 edition of the Globe and Mail was written by Donn Downey, a veteran obituarist who died in April, 2001. This was his 12th credited obit since his death. His own obit in the newspaper, based in Toronto, Canada, noted that the well-liked wordsmith was known by his colleagues as Dr. Death.

A FOBIT Is Born

There's nothing like a death in the family to create a new FOBIT, Friend of Obits. Check out this Huffington Post piece by Pamela Tom. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pamela-tom/finding-glory-in-life-in-_b_838237.html

The Ides of March: Deadline for entering obituary writing competition



 Just a reminder: The deadline for submitting entries for the 2011 Society of Professional Obituary Writers Awards is March 15.

If you need an extension, please let us know.

Click here for contest details.

Pictured above right is Kay Powell, showing off the two SPOW Awards she won in 2008. Last year, Kay became the third recipient of the SPOW Lifetime Achievement Award.

2011 Society of Professional Obituary Writers Conference and Registration

Society of Professional Obituary Writers Conference
May 12-14, 2011
St. Petersburg, Fla.

Thursday, May 12:

6 p.m. – SPOW Conference kickoff dinner starts at 6 p.m. at The Columbia at the Pier restaurant, 800 2nd Avenue N.E., St. Petersburg. Individuals are responsible for ordering and paying for their own meals. (fyi: We may have to change the time from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Stay tuned.)

All sessions Friday and Saturday at The Poynter Institute, 801 Third Street South, St. Petersburg. All times are approximate. Schedule is subject to change.

Friday, May 13:
9-10 a.m.- Welcome, opening remarks and “Getting to know you” icebreaker, followed by short break.

10-11:30 a.m. - Keynote speaker: Kelly McBride, a senior Poynter faculty member, will speak about reporting, writing and ethics pertaining to obituary writing.

11:30 a.m. - Short subject to be determined.

Noon - 2011 SPOW Awards luncheon
Lunch followed by presentation of SPOW Awards.
Winners will be asked to share the story behind their winning obits and to take questions.



1-4 p.m. (in not particular order) - Award winners will continue the lunchtime talk, if necessary.
Dan Reimold, a journalism professor at the University of Tampa, and Michelle Boyet, a former online producer for The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, will present a session on blogging and social media.
"I’ve got something to say" - Obit writers talk about whatever’s on their minds.

Friday sessions will end no later than 4 p.m.

Saturday, May 14:
9 a.m.  - Brief explanation of Poynter Institute’s News University online obituary writing course by its instructor, Alana Baranick, a.k.a. SPOW director.



 9:30-11 a.m. -  Police Forum: A panel of St. Petersburg Times and Patch.com reporters and editors will discuss coverage of their city’s recent series of police shootings, obituaries written for the dead police, coverage of their funerals and other issues raised in the process. Local host Andrew Meacham will lead the forum.

11:30 a.m.-noon: Conference wrap-up, SPOW business, 2012 SPOW Convention.

Additional topics will be addressed before and after the aforementioned highlights. Our time at Poynter ends at noon Saturday. This will allow conferees to continue independent discussions off campus, if they like, do the tourist thing or leave town early.

Registration is being handled through EventBrite.com. Click here to read about and pay for registration fees and membership dues.

Hotel Indigo, 234 Third Ave. North, St. Petersburg, is our official conference hotel.

Make reservations by calling the hotel directly at 727.822.4814 by April 12, 2011, to get the Early Bird rate of $99 per night.

Rambling man: Nature lover’s life full of peaks, valleys

Another outstanding local news story. Who said good writing in small-town dailies is dead?

Mash those details

In case you haven't seen this on Facebook:

Overheard in the Newsroom

Obituary editor: “Can you imagine liking mashed potatoes so much that it’s included in your obituary?”

To us, that's a detail worth exploring.

Barbara "Bookie" Grasgreen, daughter of a "ne'er-do-well absentee father"

Barbara Grasgreen's family may have gotten carried away while writing Grasgreen's obituary that ran in the paid death notice section of the Cleveland Plain Dealer on Feb. 9, 2011. Or perhaps the deceased wrote her own obit in advance.

Whatever the case, the obit starts with an attention grabbing sentence:
BARBARA GRASGREEN "BOOKIE" (Weiner) was born in 1923 in Pittsburgh to immigrant parents; Morris, a cooper and ne'er-do-well absentee father and Ida Gorodinsky, a seamstress and dedicated, determined, nurturing mother.

Click here to read the whole obit before it disappears from the Internet.

Green Burial in Georgia

Green burial is gaining popularity. Our colleague Kate Sweeney, pictured here, has produced a piece on Georgia's only conservation burial ground for the Atlanta PBS station, WABE. Here's the link to Kate's story:
http://www.pba.org/programming/programs/citycafe/

Founded by monks of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit 80 years ago, the burial ground is filled not with tombstone after tombstone but with birds and trees and indigenous wildlife and flora.

Kate's segment records her trip to the burial ground with Pat Fahey who visits his wife, Jackie, buried there in a grave he and his sons dug.

Go with Kate to this conservation burial ground, one of only five in the nation.

Granny's Virtual Funeral

Can't make it to a funeral? Work, distance keeping you away? Not to worry. Now you can view the funeral online while at work or at a bar. The phenom may be coming to your town soon. Check out this New York Times article about the growth in the number of funeral homes now streaming funeral services online, some open to everyone, some by invitation only.
I found an online funeral site years ago and shared it with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newsroom. You can just imagine the comments that prompted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/25/fashion/25death.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all

We Find That One Good Story

At the Lincoln Journal Star, Cindy Lange-Kubick tells the story of the dead to readers in Nebraska.

In the Sunday, Jan. 23 Journal Star, she has a 1A piece about her niche in the newsroom, http://journalstar.com/.

As a sidebar, Cindy interviewed me for a column, http://journalstar.com/news/local/article_1749d278-d583-51e6-b049-62ae875cf385.html.

It's always interesting to me to learn how different newspapers handle obits. I was delighted to talk with Cindy about the Journal Star's treatment of the interesting and notable people in its reader area when they die.

And, thanks to Alana and SPOW for keeping us all connected.

Preferred Notices

Mike King obituary: He was one of our own

A young reporter for The Gazette of Montreal recounts the unenviable task of writing the obituary for a colleague who died unexpectedly one weekend last summer.

Facebook-based Obituary: Marvelous? Or Creepy?

One of my Facebook Friends (Janice Harayda) posted a FB link to a Washington Post story titled "A Facebook story: A mother's joy and a family's sorrow."

Along with the link, Janice implores the Washington Post: "Please don't barge into my Facebook page after I die and annotate my posts (as) you did this poor woman's: http://wapo.st/keepout. The result may be moving, but the technique is morally creepy."

Your thoughts?

Obit Headline of the day

Maulana Marghuburrahman of Darul Uloom Deoband dies at 96

98 words

8 December 2010

UNI (United News of India)

UNNIND

English

Copyright 2010. HT Media Limited. All rights reserved.

New Delhi, Dec. 8 -- Maulana Marghuburrahman, Rector of Darul Uloom Deoband, died today at Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh after a prolonged illness. He was 96.

2011 Society of Professional Obituary Writers Awards and Conference

Finally, we've posted information about SPOW obit writing awards for 2011 on the awards page of our website.

This time, you've got more time to dust off and enter your best work of 2010, as we won't be presenting the awards until our conference in St. Petersburg, Fla., May 12-14, 2011. We'll have an awards luncheon and our professional development sessions at Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

The few details we have about the conference have been posted on our conference/convention page.

Our thanks to Cailin Brown, assistant professor of communications at The College of St. Rose in Albany, N.Y., for agreeing to coordinate our awards contest again, and to Andrew Meacham of the St. Petersburg Times for acting as the local host for our conference.

Jim Naughton mourns the loss of newspaper obits for average and not-so-average Joes

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?

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"

http://youtu.be/neiDXZpNo5A.

The obit ran in the Tallahassee Democrat on Nov. 21, 2010.

Dumbledore's obituary from "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"

I can't help wondering whether the film version of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" will include the conversation about Albus Dumbledore's obituary that appears in the book.

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.

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.

Obit writers on CBS Sunday Morning

"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.

"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.

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."

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.

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.

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?

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.

Hit-and-run victim was quiet and dependable, co-workers say

By Andrew Meacham, Times Staff Writer
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.

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.

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."

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.

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

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.



-30-

"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.