Obituary: Funeral Home and Late John Smith
HOW TO WRITE OBITUARY
The basic obituary usually includes:
--Full name of the deceased
--Age
--Date of Birth
--City and state of residence where they were living when they passed away
--Name of significant other (alive or deceased)
--Time, date and place of viewing, burial, wake and memorial service arrangements--If you don't have this information yet, you can always write something like, "funeral arrangements are being made by ABC Funeral Home and will be announced at a later date." That way those who are interested can contact the funeral home for more information. If you plan on repeating the obituary, you can include the details in a future issue.
Other things you might want to include:
--City and state of birth
--City and state of other residences--You may want to include this if: most of the person's life was spent living in a different place from where they died, they lived in a town or city that was important to them or if they were well known or did something notable in a previous town.
--Parents' names and residences--Some people only include these if they're still alive, but others give tribute to a deceased parent (ex: "daughter of the late John Smith").
--Children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren's names and residences--If this list gets two long, you can eliminate the names and locations (ex: "five grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren").
--Other family members (nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, etc.) and special friends-- Again, this can make your obituary quite long (and can get political if you include some names, but not others), so you may want to leave these people out unless you have a small family or are prepared to pay for a costly obituary.
--Special pets
--Activities--Include churches, clubs, organizations, volunteer groups, hobbies and other things that were important to your loved one.
--Vocation and places of employment
--Notable accomplishments
--Degrees and schools attended
--Military service
--Date
The basic obituary usually includes:
--Full name of the deceased
--Age
--Date of Birth
--City and state of residence where they were living when they passed away
--Name of significant other (alive or deceased)
--Time, date and place of viewing, burial, wake and memorial service arrangements--If you don't have this information yet, you can always write something like, "funeral arrangements are being made by ABC Funeral Home and will be announced at a later date." That way those who are interested can contact the funeral home for more information. If you plan on repeating the obituary, you can include the details in a future issue.
Other things you might want to include:
--City and state of birth
--City and state of other residences--You may want to include this if: most of the person's life was spent living in a different place from where they died, they lived in a town or city that was important to them or if they were well known or did something notable in a previous town.
--Parents' names and residences--Some people only include these if they're still alive, but others give tribute to a deceased parent (ex: "daughter of the late John Smith").
--Children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren's names and residences--If this list gets two long, you can eliminate the names and locations (ex: "five grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren").
--Other family members (nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, etc.) and special friends-- Again, this can make your obituary quite long (and can get political if you include some names, but not others), so you may want to leave these people out unless you have a small family or are prepared to pay for a costly obituary.
--Special pets
--Activities--Include churches, clubs, organizations, volunteer groups, hobbies and other things that were important to your loved one.
--Vocation and places of employment
--Notable accomplishments
--Degrees and schools attended
--Military service
--Date