Obituary Samples & Example Obituaries
Below you will find several creative and clever obituary examples. For more guidelines on how to write an obituary, read How to write an obituary.
Obituary Examples
Jim Schinneller’s Obituary
If you’ve been reading our thoughts on how to handle the end of life, you probably gathered that we don’t believe we need to stick with too many rules. Here is a funny obituary that broke the rules. It certainly was personal to those who knew Jim Schinneller. And it made others like us wish we had known him.
Creative obituary example
Here is an article from AP that explains:
Article about Creative Obituary Samples
Twyla Daun (Chell) Picard Obituary Sample
Twyla Picard Sample Obituary
Below is an obituary example that shows another creative obituary.
April 14, 1952 – Sept. 17, 2015
This is the story of Twyla Daun (Chell) Picard. Twyla was a wonderful woman that was loved, is missed, and will always be cherished. Our “Nana,” as she liked to be called by her grandchildren, “Honey,” as she was called by Tawny when she was little, was an amazing wife, mom, daughter, and a baker of buns like no other could be.
Twyla’s story starts on April 14, 1952, the oldest child to Harvey and Josephine Chell. Twyla was born in Webster, S. D. When Twyla was still little Harvey and Jo moved their small family to Froid, where Twyla would spend her childhood, grow up, make many lifelong friends, and go to school. She was very proud to be a Froid Cardinal and would always point them out when she was lucky enough to see one. Froid is where she would meet the love of her life, Samuel Lee Picard of Bainville. Twyla and “Sammy” had a whirlwind romance and were married in the Lutheran church in Froid on Aug. 16, 1969. Twyla and Sam spent many hardworking years on the family farm north of Bainville and east of Froid.
Twyla was renowned for her cooking and baking skills. Twyla and Sam never had any trouble finding help on the farm. Everyone always knew they would have plenty of homemade delicious food to eat while they were there to work. Shay remembers many many pans of buns coming out of the funny looking oven that Twyla baked with in her kitchen, and always having a ham and cheese sandwich on one of those buns to eat when he arrived from that long bus ride home from school. Twyla could also get out and work the cattle and those damn sheep and drive truck with best of them. She worked that farm very hard.
In 1983, after their daughter Tawny Jo was born, Twyla and Sam moved their family to the “big city” of Billings. Twyla and Sam bought Al’s Bootery and the Redwing shoe store.
They had many successful years selling western and work boots to the people of Billings and the surrounding area. Twyla was pretty famous for her knee high snake skin boots. Twyla and Sam also started a successful residential construction company soon after moving to Billings that is still going strong today. Everyone knew that when Twyla showed up on the job site they had better have it cleaned up and better have things done right. If you were going to do it halfassed you may as well not do it at all.
Twyla loved to look at and be in the mountains of Montana. Twyla and her family spent many days up and around Cooke City, Mont. Twyla and Sam would always point out Pilot Index when they were on the way up there and they had “their meadow” where they had many happy times together. If there was anywhere Twyla loved to be with her family it was in the mountains.
Twyla’s grand children were her heart and joy. There’s no denying that, her grand babies as she called them, were the people that she loved the most. Time spent at Nana’s house was very special for her grand babies, and parents were discouraged from hanging out too long.
Loved ones that cleared the path for Twyla are her father Harvey Elroy Chell, infant daughter Marie Ann Picard, and her sister Renette Chell. Loved ones that will miss Twyla until they meet again are her husband Samuel Lee Picard; her mother Josephine Chell; her daughter Tawny Jo Picard; her son and daughter in-law Shay Christon Picard and Melissa Florence Picard; and her grandchildren Dallas (Tooter Hopper) Shay Picard, Dawson (Dawsey) Clay Picard, Daphne (Bunny) Dea Picard, Kyra MaKayla Eastwood, Travis James Eastwood, Alex Tyler Hilario, and Lilly (Kitty) Caroline Grace Hilario. Her brother Dwight Chell and her sister Becky Lubbers.
Memory cards
Have your guests fill out these memory cards to capture special memories of your loved one. These cards can be put in a pouch and taken out and shared at family gatherings for years to come.
And so the story goes on until we see our Nana and our Honey again. We love you and miss you Mom.
In lieu of flowers please make donations to the Arthritis Foundation or to the charity of your choice in Twyla’s name.
Harry Weathersby Stamps’ Obituary
When it came time to write her father’s obituary, Amanda Lewis said, “I don’t understand why people do a resumé for an obituary. It never captures the spirit of the person. My dad had such a big spirit. He had such a big personality. And I didn’t think listing where he went to college and his resumé would do him justice. I liked the idea of setting it up as kind of a contrast where at first you think it’ll be a pretentious obituary — everyone’s great when they die in an obituary — and then I tried to use what would have been his sense of humor to describe my dad. And clearly it worked. I was pleased with it.”
Here is the third obituary sample:
Harry Weathersby Stamps
December 19, 1932 — March 9, 2013
Long Beach
Harry Weathersby Stamps, ladies’ man, foodie, natty dresser, and accomplished traveler, died on Saturday, March 9, 2013.
Harry was locally sourcing his food years before chefs in California starting using cilantro and arugula (both of which he hated). For his signature bacon and tomato sandwich, he procured 100% all white Bunny Bread from Georgia, Blue Plate mayonnaise from New Orleans, Sauer’s black pepper from Virginia, home grown tomatoes from outside Oxford, and Tennessee’s Benton bacon from his bacon-of-the-month subscription. As a point of pride, he purported to remember every meal he had eaten in his 80 years of life.
The women in his life were numerous. He particularly fancied smart women. He loved his mom Wilma Hartzog (deceased), who with the help of her sisters and cousins in New Hebron reared Harry after his father Walter’s death when Harry was 12. He worshipped his older sister Lynn Stamps Garner (deceased), a character in her own right, and her daughter Lynda Lightsey of Hattiesburg.
He married his main squeeze Ann Moore, a home economics teacher, almost 50 years ago, with whom they had two girls Amanda Lewis of Dallas, and Alison of Starkville. He taught them to fish, to select a quality hammer, to love nature, and to just be thankful. He took great pride in stocking their tool boxes. One of his regrets was not seeing his girl, Hillary Clinton, elected President.
He had a life-long love affair with deviled eggs, Lane cakes, boiled peanuts, Vienna [Vi-e-na] sausages on saltines, his homemade canned fig preserves, pork chops, turnip greens, and buttermilk served in martini glasses garnished with cornbread.
He excelled at growing camellias, rebuilding houses after hurricanes, rocking, eradicating mole crickets from his front yard, composting pine needles, living within his means, outsmarting squirrels, never losing a game of competitive sickness, and reading any history book he could get his hands on. He loved to use his oversized “old man” remote control, which thankfully survived Hurricane Katrina, to flip between watching The Barefoot Contessa and anything on The History Channel.
He took extreme pride in his two grandchildren Harper Lewis (8) and William Stamps Lewis (6) of Dallas for whom he would crow like a rooster on their phone calls. As a former government and sociology professor for Gulf Coast Community College, Harry was thoroughly interested in politics and religion and enjoyed watching politicians act like preachers and preachers act like politicians. He was fond of saying a phrase he coined “I am not running for political office or trying to get married” when he was “speaking the truth.” He also took pride in his service during the Korean conflict, serving the rank of corporal–just like Napolean, as he would say.
Harry took fashion cues from no one. His signature every day look was all his: a plain pocketed T-shirt designed by the fashion house Fruit of the Loom, his black-label elastic waist shorts worn above the navel and sold exclusively at the Sam’s on Highway 49, and a pair of old school Wallabees (who can even remember where he got those?) that were always paired with a grass-stained MSU baseball cap.
Harry traveled extensively. He only stayed in the finest quality AAA-rated campgrounds, his favorite being Indian Creek outside Cherokee, North Carolina. He always spent the extra money to upgrade to a creek view for his tent. Many years later he purchased a used pop-up camper for his family to travel in style, which spoiled his daughters for life.
He despised phonies, his 1969 Volvo (which he also loved), know-it-all Yankees, Southerners who used the words “veranda” and “porte cochere” to put on airs, eating grape leaves, Law and Order (all franchises), cats, and Martha Stewart. In reverse order. He particularly hated Day Light Saving Time, which he referred to as The Devil’s Time. It is not lost on his family that he died the very day that he would have had to spring his clock forward. This can only be viewed as his final protest.
Because of his irrational fear that his family would throw him a golf-themed funeral despite his hatred for the sport, his family will hold a private, family only service free of any type of “theme.” Visitation will be held at Bradford-O’Keefe Funeral Home, 15th Street, Gulfport on Monday, March 11, 2013 from 6-8 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you make a donation to Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College (Jeff Davis Campus) for their library. Harry retired as Dean there and was very proud of his friends and the faculty. He taught thousands and thousands of Mississippians during his life. The family would also like to thank the Gulfport Railroad Center dialysis staff who took great care of him and his caretaker Jameka Stribling.
Finally, the family asks that in honor of Harry that you write your Congressman and ask for the repeal of Day Light Saving Time. Harry wanted everyone to get back on the Lord’s Time.
Seed Card Plantable Heart
These plantable heart cards are personalized and distributed to friends and family at the memorial. They can then plant the heart and wildflowers will grow in her memory. Find seed cards here. More memorial gifts
Clarence McCandless’s Obituary
The sample obituary below is a bit more creative than most and is interesting to read as well as giving a feel for Clarence McCandless’s life.
Obituary North: Third-generation family farmer always busy on 400-acre spread
Sunday, November 14, 2004
By Alisha Hipwell
Clarence B. McCandless hated to repair machinery, but he loved just about everything else about farming — especially riding the tractor.
“I don’t think he would ever have been satisfied if he’d had to give it up altogether, he’d been farming so long,” said his wife, Donna McCandless.
In Butler County, where residential and commercial development is quickly replacing the family farm, Mr. McCandless’ farm in Center remains a link to the area’s agricultural heritage.
Mr. McCandless, the third generation of his family to farm the same land and a member of the Butler County Farm Bureau, died Nov. 5 of complications from heart disease and diabetes at the farm. He was 73.
Mr. McCandless was born in 1931 on the farm his grandfather started.
His father, Blair McCandless, was disabled by arthritis, so Mr. McCandless learned to farm from his uncle, the late Stanley McCandless, who lived with the family. He first got on a tractor at age 7 and juggled his farm chores with his schooling.
Named the McCandless Potato Farm, the 400-acre spread, situated half in Center and half in Franklin, supplied potatoes to potato chip companies such as Troyer Farms and Frito-Lay.
The family left that business about a decade ago when the market for potatoes fell, but Mr. McCandless continued to raise beef cattle, hay, corn and oats.
“There was always something to do. There was no retirement even in the winter time,” his wife said.
When Mr. McCandless did take a break from the rigors of the farm, he enjoyed attending NASCAR races with his wife.
In 1996, the family’s farm was named a Century Farm by Butler County and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, a recognition given to farms owned and operated by the same family for more than 100 consecutive years.
Donna McCandless said their son, Lee McCandless, of Center, plans to take over, ensuring that a fourth generation of the family will work the land.
In addition to his wife and son, Mr. McCandless is survived by three other sons, David McCandless, of the Hilliards section of Washington, Butler County, Ronny McCandless, of Fawn Grove, York County, and Robert McCandless, of Franklin, Butler County; a daughter, Darla Marks, also of Franklin; a brother, Darrell McCandless, also of Franklin; a sister, Helen Blanche Tribby, of Mesa, Ariz.; and 14 grandchildren.
A funeral was held Wednesday in Edward L. Raisley Funeral Home in Prospect. Interment was in Unionville Cemetery.
Read more about How to Write an Obituary. Or check out our other helpful pages on poems, songs, and eulogies.
Ideas you can use to create a unique Celebration of Life: (click on photo for more info)
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- Plantable leaf cards are personalized and make a special token of remembrance.
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- You can make beads from any kind of leftover flowers, such as roses, lilies, carnations or any other type.
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- Life Celebration Book captures memories using photos and cards filled out by guests. It is also a register book.
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- Scatter Memory Stones for Funeral around a candle and photo on the memory table.
Need more help? Download our guidebook Planning a Celebration of Life for more tips plus a handy checklist for planning purposes.
