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The obituaries are one of the most important parts of a community news organization. Many people turn to the obituaries first in a paper -- nothing is more intensely personal and locally important than a community death. An obit that is well-written can generate tears, letters and fond or painful memories; a poorly researched or written obit will make your phone ring and your Inbox full.

For many, an obituary will be the last written record of a person's life and often the most public one. People clip and save these for generations. When writing an obit, you need to show the person and what their life involved and brought about. Paint a picture, but avoid being either flowery or cruel. Just write the facts.

"Didn't you hear? Bob just died."

• News of someone dying travels fast. Follow up on gossip or email chatter. Call friends, local funeral homes or places of worship for confirmation.
• In religious communities there are usually only a few places that handle burial arrangements. Call them and get the death notice / death certificate, which includes a brief bio filled out by the family.

Funeral / Wake / Burial: Prior Considerations

• First off, if possible, do attend the funeral. Funerals produce important stories and facts from friends and family and will provide you with a good snapshot of the person's life. It will also supply the names of people to talk to later, if needed.
• Prior research: If you have time to do some Googling beforehand, great. Otherwise, it's okay to go in cold -- you'll learn a lot from the service.
• Reporters’ funeral attire should be business dress across the board. Shirt and jacket for men; slacks, a blouse or an appropriate dress or skirt for women.
• Order of events: Usually, there will be a funeral / wake at a funeral home, followed by a trip to the cemetery. The first part will have everything you need -- there's no reason to go to the cemetery unless you knew the person yourself. (I found that most of the time the obituary was my way of paying my respects to people I knew.)
• Make special considerations about the individual's religious beliefs. If the person is Jewish, there will often be an event called Shiva held at a family member's house. If you need additional quotes or photos, this is often the place. The environment will be somewhat more relaxed than the funeral itself.

Funeral / Wake / Burial: During the Services

• Grab a funeral brochure. It will include proper name spellings and sometimes the names of the speakers.
• Be polite. Obviously, this is a funeral, so respect the environment. Minimize small talk and be as unobtrusive as possible. People won't care if you work for the New York Times or not – keep it down and don't get in the way.
• Taking notes is fine at a funeral, but try and do it without making yourself overly visible. Sit in the back. Sometimes you can ask people basic questions before the service begins, but do it conversationally – not on the record. Afterwards, quotes are fine once the deceased person and immediate family leave and you exit the building.
• Photos are usually not okay inside the building or during the funeral. But you wouldn't normally need to take any shots of the coffin / mourners unless it's a major community loss. If you need a photo to run with your story do try and network with the funeral home (first) or, failing that, family members for an old/new family photo, especially if you need a high-resolution image for a print outlet.

Further Reporting

• Avoid talking to immediate family. In most cases they will not be happy to speak with you. Work through the funeral home – that's what they get paid to do. Occasionally, some families may reach out to reporters because they want certain things included in the obit.
• When seeking quotes, start off by asking him or her something like, "Hi, I'm X from the Y. I'm writing an obituary about Z and I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about them and their life." Go for open-ended questions and give them a little latitude; sometimes people aren't used to talking with reporters, and they might not be able to sum up their feelings immediately. As mentioned before, get quotes from the funeral home, from friends, from organizations with which he or she was involved or from former workplaces. Always ask, "Is there anyone else I should speak with?"
• Look for holes in the information you're given. Sadly, deaths are sometimes political, and people may try to even old scores by deleting / substituting certain information. Someone might submit an obit with only three grandparents (they didn't like Grandpa Jack) or with five (their neighbor was practically family). Or someone might leave out an ex-wife or a black-sheep son. Regardless of what the family wants, you have a duty to represent the entire person to the community, especially his or her core facts and attributes.
• Fact check. Funeral homes usually write down whatever information is given to them by the immediate family, and some of it may be incorrect. If it says he or she fought in the Korean War in the 1960's, either the war or the year is wrong. Also, make sure his or her age is correct -- if his or her birthday just passed or is about to pass, they may be a year older / younger than you might think.

Writing the Obit

• Obits online or in the paper that don't have bylines are usually just the death notices submitted by the funeral homes. This is often a bare-bones (pardon the pun) list of a few vital facts -- age of death, location of birth/death, work summary, etc. More recently, some papers might charge a fee and let the family members write the obits however (and usually, as flowery as) they want.
• Featured obits (the ones with bylines) may or may not contain all of a person's biographical information; they may just focus on certain aspects of his or her life and accomplishments and leave the details (complete education, surviving family members, etc.) to a separate piece. Find out which piece you are writing before you get started.
• Take the emotional temperature of the death. You are there to reflect the mood in the community. There is a difference between the expected, natural death of a 95-year-old woman and the death of a teen or young mother, or a family in a car/plane accident. If people are falling apart at the seams, it's appropriate to mention that a community is “shocked” or “devastated.”
• Get a feel for the person and portray him or her in a way that resonates with family members, but also paints an adequate picture for those who are less familiar. You need to understand his or her essence, not just what he or she accomplished. To nail down characteristics, it's okay to prime the pump and confirm stories and traits. "People tell me he really loved horses," or, "People I speak with keep saying how dedicated he was to his patients. Do you know anything about that?"
• Military vets use their own terms and titles, and many papers will include a small picture of an American flag next to the obit. Check your style guide.
• Ledes may be anecdotal ("When Jim Navies was six years old he knew he wanted to sell cars someday.") or newsy ("Greg Harrison, a community leader and founder of the First Baptist Church of South Main Street, died Wednesday from heart failure").

Making Mistakes
If you mess up and get angry phone calls, remember that people are still high on emotion, and try not to take anything personally if they curse or say hurtful things. Do your best to fix any errors, but stand by your work if you've done your due diligence.