Archive: December 2007
Variety of Life
Anyone who lived in the American West in the spring and summer of 1993 remembers the unexplained string of deaths of (mostly) rural residents. I have a vivid memory of camping in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and thinking about the ways that virus can be transmitted -- while...
By Patricia Sullivan | December 23, 2007; 12:59 PM ET | Comments (0)
Memories of Hank
How do you write about the death of a friend? Last Sunday, I wrote an obituary of Hank Kaplan, the country's foremost historian of boxing. I'm rather proud of the story, both as a piece of writing and as a remembrance of someone I knew rather well. If you haven't...
By Matt Schudel | December 20, 2007; 8:47 AM ET | Comments (0)
Dead Air
For those who cannot get enough of obituaries in print, I'll join Daily Telegraph obituaries editor Andrew McKie and New York Sun obituaries editor Stephen Miller for an hour-long discussion Wednesday on Kojo Nnamdi's WAMU-FM current affairs program. The segment airs from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. We did the...
By Adam Bernstein | December 17, 2007; 3:27 PM ET | Comments (3)
Call it Obiticide
From one of our regular readers, a link to the Regret the Error site: To the Dearly (not) Departed: We call it "obiticide" - death by media. What follows are some of the people prematurely declared dead by the press this year. International Herald Tribune: An article in some copies...
By Patricia Sullivan | December 13, 2007; 4:20 PM ET | Comments (1)
Block That Euphemism
Brinsfield Funeral Home in Leonardtown, Md., has started to call itself the Brinsfield "Life Celebration Home." An employee there told me today that this is a new development, designed to coincide with its "life celebration" packages such as DVDs, a memorial portrait of the deceased and a pamphlet with 10...
By Adam Bernstein | December 12, 2007; 11:39 AM ET | Comments (3)
Showmen's Rest
In writing an obit of pilot and poet Ann Darr, I heard from her daughter that Mrs. Darr wanted her tombstone to read: "Late in life, she ran away from home and joined the circus." As fate would have it, she was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Forest Park, Ill....
By Patricia Sullivan | December 11, 2007; 11:02 AM ET | Comments (0)
The Daily Goodbye
Broken nibs and faulty cartridges were no match for Chicago's last pen doctor. It'a almost February for New Orleanians, who mark the year by Mardi Gras. A well-known float builder will be missing this year. Just five weeks after the death of the Rice-A-Roni creator and founder of the Napa...
By Patricia Sullivan | December 9, 2007; 10:54 AM ET | Comments (0)
Blog Bogged Down
This week has been extremely busy on the Obits desk, leaving us little or no time to post new entries on Post Mortem. We'll get back to the blog when the pace slows down. Bear with us....
By Matt Schudel | December 8, 2007; 4:41 PM ET | Comments (0)
Obits as Movies
So Tom Hanks is about to release his new movie, "Charlie Wilson's War", which should be hilarious and scary all at once. I know this because of two obits -- not the former congressman known as "Good Time Charlie" (he had a heart transplant in September), but his sidekick, Gust...
By Patricia Sullivan | December 4, 2007; 12:35 PM ET | Comments (1)
Covenants With Ourselves
Among the satisfactions of writing Washington Post obituaries, basically biographies in miniature, is the opportunity to explore how people take the hand they've been dealt -- fate, family circumstance, luck, place, etc. -- and craft a life for themselves. That, plus the license to be curious -- nosy, if you...
By Joe Holley | December 3, 2007; 12:40 PM ET | Comments (1)
Obit Sleuthing
... it may not be as dramatic as Bob Woodward lurking in parking garages to get the scoop on Watergate from Deep Throat, but it felt like a small investigative triumph here on the Obits desk...
By Matt Schudel | December 1, 2007; 12:34 PM ET | Comments (0)
Good and Evel
If you haven't read Pat Sullivan's obituary of Evel Knievel yet, click on this link and read it right now. Pat has done a remarkable job of summing up the amazing life (and death) of America's Daredevil -- and did it all on deadline Friday afternoon and evening. When word...
By Matt Schudel | December 1, 2007; 11:54 AM ET | Comments (0)
