I have read the obituaries practically since I could read the paper. One of the doctors I work with saw me reading them the other day and commented that it must be a ‘southern thing’. My mother has always read them, and told me that she thinks it’s an ‘old people’ thing. So, I’m curious. Do you read them? If so, do you do it because you’ve always done it? Or am I just some sort of weirdo with morbidly curious reading habits? 
Always.
And I’m neither Southern nor Old.
A perverse fascination on my part, perhaps, but I’ve found old friends and acquaintances there, so it serves it’s purpose.
I don’t read them…yet.
I plan to start in about 20 to 25 years, when people I know should start dropping…
I started reading 'em when I was about 30, not 'cos I’m southern, though. A buddy of mine had been killed in a motorcycle accident, and I guess I just started reading 'em to remind myself daily of my own mortality.
I live in a medium-sized community and work in the health care field, so I always read the obits to see if I know anyone. Here in Palm Springs the average age of the deceased is usually in the upper 80s to 90s, which is somehow comforting. Not because these people were stuck in nursing homes, but because I know that so many of them were able to keep their own homes and stay active so late in life. On the other hand, try reading the obits in a city whose population consists overwhelmingly of a religion that puts so much emphasis on procreation - talk about depressing, it seemed like every day there were 4 or 5 infant deaths reported. Of course this is the same state that has the lowest rate of child vaccinations in this country. I just wonder why bother having such a large family, of course in the case of the polygamists it pays off because you take out a big life insurance policy on each kid and then use the money to buy a large house up in the canyons.
Sorry, wrong thread. Yes, I read the obituaries.
Of Course. That’s how I get the latest news about my friends. I even look up the obituaries in my old home-town newspaper on the net. I guess I’m just a happy-go-lucky sort of guy.
If things go on the way they are, I won’t know anybody in this town in another 25 years.
I’m with Dave Simmons! I LOVE the obits. I get to feel sad when I see someone younger than I am has come to an untimely demise; I can feel sad and superior or something (they’re dead, I’m alive) when I see someone my own age has gone to join the majority; I can feel sad and and properly respectful when a well-known local has met his or her maker, and so on. Obits give you a lot of history, too. Lots of the WW2 generation are dying now, and I marvel at their life stories such as they are, squeezed into the obit column. Amd the obits tell you who survives–sometimes some surprises can be found there, too.
Most of all, the obits let me know there are some who are definitely worse off than myself.
I get two daily papers, the Portland Oregonian and the New York Times, and I only check the obits in the Times for some strange reason.
I like to read about the lives of the very old, to see what all they did. Sometimes it’s sad, because a senior will die and the obit will say “no immediate family members survive” that would be lonely.
Or I read the obits of those that die at 99, to see how close to 100 they got. One time there was an old guy here who died two days before his 100th. The final line of the obit was priceless. “The party planned for his 100th birthday will go on as acheduled.” Isn’t that great?
I read them, not for the Atlanta area, but online for other places I’ve lived. I do this because I worked with a lot of ill people, and while I keep in touch with them, their family wouldn’t necessarily know to contact me if something happened.
Usually just the giant obits with photos or of public personalities. It’s a time thing.
I’ve read them since I was 12, except during the week that I expected my friend’s to appear. I figured hell, I helped write it, I didn’t need to read it again.
I don’t bother with any paper other than the NY Times, and that’s only because the Times has such an odd Obits section. Sure, they do the obligatory Big Important People obits, but they’ve also made a specialty of doing interesting, unusually long obits for people you’ve never heard of. Like word gamesman Willard R. Espy (An Almanac of Words at Play), or 84 Charing Cross Road author Helene Hanff, or Henry Kloss, inventor of the groundbreaking KLH radio, or (most sadly) the guy who headed the Times obituary-writing bureau, a fantastic writer and editor was only about 60 when he died a couple of years ago.
I often learn more interesting things from a page of obituaries than I do from the whole rest of the paper put together.
No. I have probably read less than 10 obituaries in my life.
I read The Washington Post newspaper and if I read the obituaries at all, I look at the ones of famous people. Sometimes the obits are of people who wrote my favorite books, some are of people who are related to famous people. It’s fascinating to read the obits of heads of state of foreign countries to see the highlights of their lives.
I look for my own name {which Ive found 3 times so far}: memento mori, I guess, but it probably started a few years ago when I was sitting in a neglected, overgrown little country churchyard, where Id stopped for a rest after a morning`s hiking. I idly checked the headstone I was next to, and saw that it was my own, or at least it had my name on it. Whoever it belonged to had apparently died in a drowning accident about 60 years earlier, at the same age I was then. I had to laugh because the whole thing was just so neatly corny. Still, like the man said, we owe God a death.
I read the Washington Post obits every day to see how old the oldest person who died was. Somebody reached 112 a few weeks back!
Job requirement: I read the obits everyday. It’s the best way to know who will be coming to buy property in the cemetery, after all.
You’d think they’d call before they came, wouldn’t you?
I do, always.
First, as a genealogist, I look for possible family connections - I have no idea why, it’s not like I’m going to contact the grieving family and say “Hello cousin!”, but I like to keep an eye on them anyway. I guess this has paid off twice when I’ve realised I was looking at notices for very distant cousins whose names were already in the family tree and I was able to update their details with that final date.
Second, the newspaper is my only connection to most of the people I went to school with. They show up in the births and the deaths columns most frequently; strangly few seem to appear in the marriage announcements. The most direct deaths I’ve seen in the paper is for a girl who hung around with the same group of people I did and was in my class - we weren’t close, but we did know each other well for a time - and last year a man I’d kissed back when I was 15 was killed in a motorbike accident. Both times I found out through the obituaries. I guess there would have been around 10 deaths of people I knew through school over the last decade. They’ve slowed down somewhat, most were killed in car accidents and that seems to be less of a risk now that we’re in our mid-20’s (touch wood).
Third, I live in a smallish town (population 20,000, surrounding towns have a combined population of around 30,000) so pretty much everyone is potentially someone I know. In fact, on Friday there was a fatal accident at the paper mill that employs my husband and my father, in which a 45 year old man was crushed. This is very tragic, very sad and Dad and Mr Cazzle were most disturbed by the news. I do not personally know the man, nor does Mr Cazzle, but my father knew him a little through the job and when I spoke to my brother on the phone tonight, he told me that he sold the guy a printer and a scanner about two weeks ago, and that his friend was the man’s son’s friend. I never even thought about my 22 year old brother knowing the guy. My point being that most every death in the area affects someone that we know, so I like to be aware.
Finally, my aunt set the example for me by reading the obituaries first thing every morning. She always jokes that she likes to make sure she’s not in them before she starts her day.
Like some of the previous posters, I just read the bigger ones, usually out of town semi-celebrities. Very weird stuff turns up from time to time.
A couple years ago, there was some 80 year old guy (can’t remember what he was famous for) that died roller blading in the street, hit by a car. Better than getting the plug pulled.
A couple weeks ago there was some B-movie actor. It listed some obscure films from the 1940’s and then “Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs.” What a career segue.
The local paper likes to put in ones for people who were the first to do X. Where X is some minor everyday thing now, but 60 years ago was unheard of.
I also saved the 2 line obit placed for Alfred Hitchcock in the LA Times by the funeral home. Just another name in a long list.