Death Becomes Them   

Obit writers convene to share art of their trade

People devoted to the art of writing about the deceased will get together in Las Vegas, New Mexico, at the end of May, to share the joys, pitfalls and strangeness inherent in the work. The Fourth Great Obituary Writers' National Conference, a two-day affair, will draw journalists from papers large and small, plus academics, genealogists and funeral industry professionals.

And folks who just plain love reading the obit page, like conference organizer Carolyn Gilbert, a nonjournalist from Dallas who started the annual event in 1999.

"The first year, everybody thought I was nuts," Gilbert says. "I guess nobody ever asked obituary writers to gather or say anything about the work they do. It's such a different kind of journalism.... We approach it as an art and a science, and we have gathered people who are considered experts in their field."

Such as the Washington Post's Richard Pearson, Alana Baranick of Cleveland's Plain Dealer and Kay Powell, news obituary editor at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, whose presentation last year focused on the importance of the basics--rigorous reporting and inspired interviewing--in writing the best obits, the ones that touch readers.

"I think there's a story in everybody, and it's up to me to find it. I think that's the test of me, to find it," Powell says. "I really love it when we get something in there that a family member says, 'I never knew that' or 'I had forgotten.' "

It's also easy to miss something important, as Powell reminded her audience last year. "One reporter should have asked a few more questions when the family told her Daddy died after a fall," she told them. "Later we found out Daddy fell after his daughter murdered him."

Although, as Powell says, "Every death is sad; every death is a struggle," obit writers, at least those who work at papers that allow them the space to write about a broad range of people, tend to be a happy bunch. "I find it fun to talk to different people every day, different kinds of people from different walks of life," says Pearson, who began writing obits for the Post in 1977 and became obituary editor a few years later. Plus, he says, "There's never any complaints about who we write about from the bosses."

But readers can be another matter. Baranick, an award-winner who's been writing obits for 17 years, 10 at the Plain Dealer, will recount a recent learning experience at this year's conference, in a presentation she called "Fast Eddie Watkins and the Disgraceful Dead."

Baranick's obituary of Watkins made the front page when he died in March at 82. "During his 43-year career of making unauthorized withdrawals from banks from here to California, Watkins estimated he stole more than $1.5 million from 55 banks," she wrote. "He maintained friendly relationships with many of the law enforcement officials who captured him, the judges who sentenced him and the reporters who covered his career. Watkins spent more than 50 years in county, state and federal prisons, but escaped many times."

"His generated more interest than any story I've ever done," Baranick says. Of the dozens of calls and e-mails, a large percentage said things like, " 'Why would you put this person on the front page when there are college students going out to feed the poor?' A lot of people felt that if you give it space it ought to be a good person," she says. On the other hand, she also "got a lot of positive stuff. People just loved the story."

Gilbert is calling this year's conference "2002: The Year of the Obituary Writer," in recognition of the role obit writers played in memorializing the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

"It's kind of a singular skill," Gilbert says. "Even within their own organization, they may not be as highly prized as they should be. Obit writing really requires the best writer on the paper, the person who has the most life experience. And the [ability] to understand its significance not only to a family history, but [to the] community."

Gilbert, 61, a communications and public affairs specialist, has such appreciation for the obit that she not only launched these conferences, but also a Web site (obitpage.com) and, last spring, the International Association of Obituarists.

"I always personally read the obits," she says. "I take about seven or eight newspapers from places I've lived or worked or have an interest in, and that just sort of set a pattern. A group of us meet on a weekly or so basis and trade obits...[and] talk about the wonderful writing.... My organizing brain said, 'Wouldn't it be fun if we got these people together?' "

Baranick certainly thought so when she went to her first conference last year. "It was so cool," she says. "All these people who are interested in obits. We're strange creatures."