Obit Research

And as I looked around the internet, I couldn’t find a real obituary for him, which surprised me since 1985 wasn’t that long ago. I also was pretty disappointed. Not only is Perry’s stage name a name that’s thrown around a lot in popular culture- enough to merit widespread memorializing and analysis- it’s another reminder of the kinds of people the research has shown our society chooses to remember, and how they remember them.

One of the more interesting and relatively fair articles I found about Perry came from NPR in 2006 on the occasion of Mel Watkins’ biography of Stepin Fetchit.

Here’s the link to “Stepin Fetchit, Hollywood’s First Black Film Star”.

And here’s Perry’s IMDB page, too.

I’ve been checking out Irish obituaries, and initially they looked pretty similar to American ones. In fact, it seems that Americans and Irish-Americans are common subjects for prominent obituaries.

The difference I noticed, though, came in the language of death notices. I looked at the death notices in the Irish Times (the major paper in Dublin) and the New York Times to see how the language in Irish death notices is different than the language in American death notices.

For example:

EMILY MINOR
MINOR–Emily Chadbourne, 94, died October 30 in Rye, NY. Survived by her son John and daughters Kathleen, Jane and Caroline, 14 grandchildren, 23 great-grandchildren. Service at Christ’s Church Rye, NY, December 3, 11am.

This is a death notice from the New York Times. And while the language in the paid death notices varies some, mostly the notices are pretty straightforward, maybe saying that the deceased died “peacefully” or that the person was loved, but the

Irish death noticed seemed much different to me.

This is a typical death notice from the Irish Times:

JOHNSTON (Nephin Road, Dublin 7) – November 11, 2009, (peacefully), at St. Francis Hospice, Raheny, Ellen, much loved sister of the late Sheila, Patrick and Desmond; deeply regretted by her loving nephew Desmond, relatives and friends. Rest in peace. Removal from St. Francis Hospice to the Church of Our Lady Help of Christians, Navan Road this (Friday) evening arriving at 5 o’clock Funeral tomorrow (Saturday) after 10 o’clock Mass to Glasnevin Crematorium. Donations in lieu of flowers to St. Francis Hospice, Raheny.

The differences that I noticed were, in general, Irish death notices are longer. They also use language that seems more emotional, almost effusive. “sadly missed,” “treasured” and something about the cause- “peacefully” or “unexpectedly.”

I would like to find out if it’s cheaper to post death notices in Ireland, and that’s why they are generally longer, or if they are important enough for people to pay for many lines.

Mostly, from the little browsing I’ve done, Irish and American obituaries and death notices are pretty similar. Irish obits seems similar also in that they don’t usually show “worts and all.” Maybe one of you has first-hand knowledge you can share with me.

As part of my obituary research I read an interesting study, “The Reporting of Grief”, by one newspaper of record for the U.S.: the New York Times.

The study seems to be more about articles about the grief process and grieving in general, rather than obituary writing, but I thought what the study said was interesting and telling. Here are some highlights:

• The study asks: Is grief socially constructed by the media?

• People, the study says, look to institutions to help them understand grief and give them instructions on how to grieve. The definitions provided by institutions are never all-inclusive, and leads to “disenfranchised grief.”

• The study says the media (and I would argue the larger American popular culture) present grief as an abnormal state of mind, something to be “cured” of.

• The study found that experts gave different, conflicting messages about grieving depending on the framing of reporters’ questions.

Also interesting is that during 2000-2006 articles equated handling one’s grief “well” with handling it quickly.  The study ends by recommending that topics not be chosen/constructed with the aim of “curing” or “taming” an illness, because grief isn’t an illness, but a personal journey.

… and as I’ve been doing research for this project, I’ve noticed people have just as many ways to say someone died.  There are several superstitions about inviting death in by speaking its name, and while I prefer to just say someone died,  some people prefer not to be so direct.

So, in honor of those who prefer more artful and colorful ways to talk about death (and with kudos to Ian) I give you my top ten list of favorite euphemisms for death:

1. Shuffle off this mortal coil
2. Give up the ghost
3. Kick the bucket
4. At room temperature
5. Dirt nap
6. Se le congeló la sonrisa (to get a frozen smile.)
7. Bought a pine condo
8. Turn up one’s toes
9. Moved into upper management
10. Eating the grass by the roots

What are your favorites?

I’ve spent part of my day compiling interviews I’ve been doing with people my age (32-41) about what they like and don’t like when it comes to obituaries in print and online.

Here are some things they said that I find especially interesting:

My interviewees don’t use social media, such as Facebook, to memorialize people. One person said it would be “weird” to see a memorial page there, and on first thought I think so too. My interviewees talked about wanting to remember someone in a more private way, and I’m interested to know if this is a generational thing, or something else.

My interviewees are also unanimously opposed to paying to read archived obituaries, sign guest books, or pay for online obituary services, including paying to have a journalist write an obituary for them. One even expressed disgust at the monetization of the grieving process. I also tend to agree with them, but I don’t agree with putting online content behind pay walls, in general.

Similarly, they were critical of advertising on memorial Web sites. Some thought there shouldn’t be advertising, while others thought it should only be for charities.

I’m really interested to see how my interviews compare to interviews the rest of our group did, and when I find out, I’ll report back.