Archive: January 2008
Controversial Religious Figure Dies
Marcial Maciel, 87, who founded the powerful, secretive and conservative Legionaries of Christ religious order, has died. His order declined to provide further details. Maciel's career ended in disgrace because of long-lingering sex abuse allegations brought by several of his former seminarians. In 2006, he was disciplined by Pope Benedict...
By Adam Bernstein | January 31, 2008; 2:31 PM ET | Comments (3)
Oops ...
Nell and Wallace Crain, a couple who were featured in a San Antonio (Texas) Express-News Page 1A story and photo on "the secret to a happy marriage," died between the writing of the story last summer and its publication in the San Antonio Express-News on Monday. The deaths were not...
By Patricia Sullivan | January 31, 2008; 11:42 AM ET | Comments (5)
Death, Taxes, James Joyce
It's tax season, so it wasn't unusual to get a phone call yesterday from someone at the accounting firm that's handled my taxes for the past 20 years. But this wasn't a normal call about deductions or liabilities; my accountant and her husband died of hypothermia after their canoe overturned...
By Patricia Sullivan | January 25, 2008; 11:41 AM ET | Comments (0)
Youth Movement in Obits?
Heath Ledger's death yesterday at the age of 28, and the acknowledgment by the Associated Press that they've pre-written an obit for Britney Spears, who's all of 26, raises the issue of how prepared can obit writers be for the deaths of young celebrities. The answer? Not very. Of the...
By Patricia Sullivan | January 23, 2008; 12:49 PM ET | Comments (1)
Heath Ledger and Gene Kelly
In writing about the surprising death of actor Heath Ledger, at 28, I found an intriguing tidbit in an interview he gave to a Norfolk reporter in 2001: his adoration of Gene Kelly. "I loved all those musicals," Ledger told the Virginian-Pilot. "Kelly was wonderful. I once bought myself a...
By Adam Bernstein | January 22, 2008; 8:34 PM ET | Comments (0)
Suzanne Pleshette
The Post, like many large news organizations, had an obituary for actress Suzanne Pleshette. But Time magazine's essay by critic Richard Corliss added insight to what Pleshette could have been -- her film career was mixed at best -- had she made it to Hollywood a generation earlier....
By Adam Bernstein | January 22, 2008; 2:04 PM ET | Comments (0)
Ahead of the News
The Nashville Tennessean yesterday reported the death of Slim Whitman, the country-western singer best known for his yodeling technique on songs such as "Indian Love Call" and "I Remember You." His version of the former was credited with saving earth in director Tim Burton's film "Mars Attacks!" (1996). The paper...
By Adam Bernstein | January 22, 2008; 1:52 PM ET | Comments (0)
When You Know The Subject
It's always hard to write about the death of someone you know, as Matt Schudel mentioned not too long ago. For me, the most recent example came yesterday, when a friend called to alert me that Fran Lewine died. Fran, a congenitally cheerful soul, was one of the women who...
By Patricia Sullivan | January 21, 2008; 11:34 AM ET | Comments (0)
Ike Turner Death Update
From the San Diego Union-Tribune's web site: "Legendary musician Ike Turner died from a cocaine overdose, the Medical Examiner's Office said Wednesday."...
By Adam Bernstein | January 16, 2008; 5:16 PM ET | Comments (1)
Newspaper Promotes Self in Obit
The New York Post, a newpaper economical in its fairness and devotion to nuance, recently gave itself a strange bit of promotion in an obituary. The tone is perhaps expected from a newspaper that upon the death in December of blues and rock innovator Ike Turner used the headline: IKE...
By Adam Bernstein | January 16, 2008; 3:03 PM ET | Comments (6)
Another Satisfied Reader
One thing about writing obits -- we never get complaints from our subjects. We do hear from relatives and friends of them, however, and we just want to say Thanks Heather....
By Patricia Sullivan | January 15, 2008; 11:51 AM ET | Comments (57)
Bozo
Had a blast yesterday piecing together the life of Eddie "Bozo" Miller, who ate his way into the record books. His son-in-law insisted Miller was truthful in everything but his age, which the hometown paper in Oakland incorrectly reported as 99. And typical for the mischievious Miller, he lied in...
By Adam Bernstein | January 11, 2008; 4:54 PM ET | Comments (57)
Philip Agee Dies in Cuba
The CIA is sure to be buzzing about this one -- Philip Agee has died in Cuba. He's the former agent who infuriated American intelligence officials by naming purported agency operatives in a 1975 book. Reporter Joe Holley filed on his death....
By Patricia Sullivan | January 9, 2008; 12:30 PM ET | Comments (60)
Who needs commas, anyway?
A couple of weeks ago, Chicago Tribune critic Julia Keller had a column about the standard form of obituaries. Namely (so to speak), she wondered why obituaries always begin with the formula of "Name, comma, phrase describing what the person did, comma, and died." She writes: "A standard obituary requires...
By Matt Schudel | January 5, 2008; 3:17 PM ET | Comments (6)
Tis the Season
We've entered the busiest time of the year for obits. Every year, just after the holidays, we're inundated with requests for obits. I did a spreadsheet once of 18 months worth of our articles, and the number of obits we had correlated strongly with this time of year --...
By Patricia Sullivan | January 3, 2008; 12:57 PM ET | Comments (61)
Hurricane Alley
Great little obit in the Miami Herald yesterday about an outdoorswoman who was driven from her home by one hurricane and driven from her business by another. Wish the story would have been written better, but there are a couple of nuggets in there: "They lived in a stilt house...
By Patricia Sullivan | January 2, 2008; 11:35 AM ET | Comments (0)
