2/25/2002
LAS VEGAS, N.M. (AP) — Major newspapers devoted an unusual amount of space to the obituaries of ordinary people killed in last year’s terrorist attacks, and that changed the way people look at death notices, said a woman who organized a conference of obituary writers.
“The obit didn’t have to be six columns long, and the person didn’t have to be 80 in order for it to be important,” said Carolyn Gilbert of Dallas. “It’s really spurred a different way of thinking about the obit.”
The 4-year-old conference is returning to this New Mexico community, where it was held last spring. This year’s gathering is set for May 31-June 1.
Gilbert said she believes she has every obituary of the terrorist victims in her files.
“I did, of course, notice that some of the headlines for (Sept. 11) obituaries were jaunty,” she said. “You have to remember these were people in the prime of their lives. They were young, exuberant.”
Innovations in obituaries this past year may change the way their writers approach their work, she said.
“They may look differently at their choice of words to really reflect the life of the person,” Gilbert said.
Speakers scheduled this year include Nigel Starck of the University of South Australia, a researcher of obituaries around the world; and Michael Putzel of the National Obituary Archive in Washington, D.C.
Gilbert said she reads obituaries as a mystery full of tiny hints about a person’s life.
“You know there’s a lot more to the story there,” she said. “It doesn’t ever seem morose to me.”
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Copyright 2001 Associated Press
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