Down the rabbit hole of paid obits

Some readers of the obituary page make it a daily stop as they cruise through the newspaper or the website. Judging by the feedback we receive, they peruse the offerings for different reasons. Some want to see who is the latest famous person to die; others are looking for a neighbor or loved one; still others know that even if they hadn't heard of the deceased before they may learn something new or simply enjoy a good story.

In this department we cover people who were newsmakers during their lifetime. Alongside the news obituaries are the paid obituaries, or death notices, placed by family members or close friends. Because they are not news stories, these accounts can include whatever information the deceased's loved ones wish to include and they can exclude whatever they like. It's how the family wants the person to be remembered. I have clipped and saved several newspaper paid obits about my family members, and I'm sure I'm not alone.

And even if the subject of a paid obit is not someone near and dear to you, the thumbnail sketches of lives lived can be fascinating and turn into daily required reading.

Santa Rosa Press Democrat columnist Gaye Lebaron is a devoted reader of paid obits, as Lebaron explains in this recent column:

As a habitual reader of obituaries — even those that announce the passing of strangers — I have found that the traditional death notice, wherever it appears, is almost always a window into history.

It’s not always local history. Part of being a dedicated newspaper junkie is reading the obit page in the dailies (and weeklies) we buy wherever our travels take us. If you’re staying a day or two, you can probably discern some east-to-west migration patterns.

These patterns are becoming less distinct as a younger, vastly more mobile population churns in all directions from the home base established by their elders.

You can read the rest of the column here. Ignore the tired old dig at L.A.

-- Claire Noland

Comments

[BeautyQueen]

Nice read, Claire... even if most of it had to come from another paper! Who knew that paid obits could have such significance?

[Randall Stoner]

I always check the Obits to make sure I haven't died. Because if I have, I'm not going in to work.

[remsync]

Also, when reading the obituaries in other countries, the styles of the paid obituaries change. For example, in Australia, it is very typical to see an obituary as a toast or tribute to a friend or family memeber, with multiple entries for a given individual.

For example, in today's Sydney Morning Herald, you would see this paid obituary, which is in style very rarely seen in the LA Times:

MAHONY, Brendon.

Fond memories of happy times.

Our Sydney visits will never be the same again.

Our love and thoughts are with Zoe, Antonio, Ciwa and the
Mahony families.

Jean and Bob Dixon, Perth W.A.

[Researcher]

Hi Claire,

Can you comment on why the paid obis don't come up in the search results when you do a specific name search? I did a search on a name today - no results came up - and then I saw it listed clear as day in the obit box...

[Claire Noland]

Hi Researcher. Hmm, I'm not sure why that would happen. If you look at the main obit page (www.latimes.com/obits) and scroll down past the first three headlines, you'll see the box "Search Paid Obituaries." Usually if you plug in the first and last name you'll come up with the paid obit. I'm assuming that's what you did, but if you came up empty, I'm not sure I have an explanation. Because paid obits are considering advertising, they are handled by a separate department. And the archiving is done by www.legacy.com. That website is another good resource for searching for paid obits if there's a specific person you are looking for, beyond whatever might have run in The Times.