Obituary Examples for a Husband
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What is different about writing for a husband
You are inside this obituary. Almost every other kind of obituary is written from outside the sentence, but here you will have to type a phrase like 'He is survived by his wife of forty-eight years, Ellen Cobb' about yourself, in the third person, on a week when you can barely say your own name out loud. Families stall on that line more than on any other. The plain form is the right one, and it reads completely ordinary to everyone except you. Leave a blank space, write the rest, and come back to it last.
Obituaries for men have a specific way of going flat. They turn into a work history: high school, service, employer, years, retirement, survivors. The work usually did matter to him, and it belongs in there. But two sentences of it is enough, and what a reader actually remembers is what he did on Saturdays. He answered the phone before the second ring. He kept a truck long past sense. He was the one who arrived early with the folding chairs and stayed late to carry them back out. One of those is worth more than a full paragraph of job titles.
The number of years you were married will do a great deal of work in a very short phrase, and you should use it. But a number is not a marriage. If you can add one concrete thing about the two of you together, like where you married, what you did every August, or the argument you never resolved about the thermostat, that is the sentence people will mention to you at the reception.
Second marriages need a decision made once, out loud, with the family. A first wife who died belongs in the preceded-in-death line, and naming her there takes nothing away from you. Stepchildren are listed the way the family actually speaks about them. Get that agreed before anything is submitted, because blended families read these lists very closely and a printed omission is hard to undo.
Complete examples
Every name, town and employer below is invented. Copy whichever is closest to your situation and change the details line by line. Most people have a first draft inside twenty minutes that way.
Short obituary for a husband of fifty-eight years
105 words · paid newspaper notice
Raymond Earl Tolliver, 81, of Ellsworth Bend, Iowa, died at home on the morning of February 9, 2026.
Ray was born March 3, 1944 in Corwin, Iowa, to Earl and Vera Tolliver. He served two years in the United States Army, then worked thirty-six years as a millwright at Halbrook Tool & Die. He kept bees, voted in every election, and answered the phone before the second ring.
He is survived by his wife of fifty-eight years, Doris; his daughters, Janet Prine and Sheila Tolliver; and six grandchildren.
Services will be held at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, February 14, at Bellweather Funeral Home in Ellsworth Bend.
Standard obituary for a husband, father and volunteer fireman
247 words · funeral home website and program
Walter James Kinnaird, 74, of Fairmount Hollow, Pennsylvania, died on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, at Bellhaven Regional Medical Center.
Walt was born on June 8, 1952 in Deacon Falls, Pennsylvania, to Howard and Marie Kinnaird. He graduated from Fairmount Hollow High School in 1970 and served four years in the United States Air Force.
He married Lorraine Petrosky in 1977 at Trinity Lutheran Church, where they were members for the next forty-nine years. They lived the whole of their marriage in the same house on Ridge Street.
Walt drove a route for Vandergrift Paper Company for eleven years and ran its dispatch office for twenty-two more. He served thirty-one years with the Fairmount Hollow Volunteer Fire Company, six of them as chief. He coached junior high wrestling, kept a truck long past sense, and could not be talked out of shoveling his neighbors' walks.
He is survived by his wife, Lorraine; his sons, Douglas Kinnaird (Amy) of Fairmount Hollow and Kevin Kinnaird of Ardmore Falls; his daughter, Ann Marie Sedlak (Tom) of Weldon City; seven grandchildren; and his sister, Patricia Woll. He was preceded in death by his parents and his brother, Ronald.
Visitation will be held Thursday, October 29, from 4 to 7 p.m. at Halloran & Sons Funeral Home. A funeral service will follow at 10:00 a.m. Friday at Trinity Lutheran Church, with burial at Ridgeview Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Fairmount Hollow Volunteer Fire Company.
Full obituary for a long marriage, told warmly
380 words · funeral home website
Clifford Nathaniel Boone, 86, of Wren’s Landing, North Carolina, died at home on Sunday, June 14, 2026, in the chair he had refused to replace, with his wife beside him.
Cliff was born on October 2, 1939 in Sudley, North Carolina, the fourth of seven children of Nathaniel and Estelle Boone. He served two years in the United States Army, came home, and opened a barbershop on Ferrell Street in 1963 with a borrowed chair and eighty dollars.
He cut hair in that shop for forty-four years. Three generations of men in Wren’s Landing got their first haircut from him, and a fair number of them got their first serious advice there too. He kept the shop open late on Fridays because that was when people needed to talk.
He married Ruby Faye Latham on August 22, 1964, and they were married sixty-one years. They raised four children in the house on Pettigrew Road, sat in the same pew at New Hope A.M.E. Zion Church for six decades, and drove to the coast the last week of every September, whether or not the year had gone well.
Cliff served on the usher board and sang bass in the men’s chorus. He was a Mason. He fished with more equipment than skill, watched every minute of every basketball game the state had to offer, and could not pass a stranded car without stopping.
He was not a talker at home. He showed up. He was the one who got there early with the folding chairs and stayed late to carry them back out.
He is survived by his wife of sixty-one years, Ruby Boone; his daughters, Yvonne Boone-Carter (Marcus) of Wren’s Landing and Denise Hollis of Ashgrove; his sons, Clifford Boone Jr. of Sudley and Terrence Boone (Aisha) of Wren’s Landing; eleven grandchildren; nineteen great-grandchildren; his sister, Estelle Mabry; and a host of nieces, nephews and friends. He was preceded in death by his parents, his brothers Nathaniel Jr., Roy and James, and his sister Cora Lee.
A homegoing service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 20, at New Hope A.M.E. Zion Church. The family will receive friends Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. at Ferebee Memorial Chapel.
Memorial gifts may be made to the church’s scholarship fund.
Standard obituary for a second marriage, with stepchildren named
220 words · funeral home website
Gary Alan Prentiss, 68, of Millvale Springs, Ohio, died on Thursday, September 3, 2026, at Cardinal Ridge Hospice House.
Gary was born on July 19, 1958 in Millvale Springs to Alan and Doris Prentiss, and never seriously considered living anywhere else. He graduated from Millvale Springs High School in 1976 and worked for Cordray Electric Cooperative for thirty-four years, the last nine as a crew foreman.
His first wife, Susan Prentiss, died in 2004. He married Denise Halloway in 2009 at the county courthouse, with her grandchildren throwing rice in the parking lot, and they had seventeen good years.
Gary was a patient man with an impatient truck. He restored two of them badly and one of them well. He took Denise’s grandchildren fishing every Saturday morning from April to October, and they called him Papa Gary within a month of meeting him.
He is survived by his wife, Denise Prentiss; his son, Bradley Prentiss (Erin) of Millvale Springs; his daughter, Michelle Ostrander (Ken) of Harlow Creek; his stepchildren, Tricia Vogel and Aaron Halloway; nine grandchildren; and his brother, Dennis Prentiss. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Susan, and by his parents.
A memorial gathering will be held Saturday, September 12, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Millvale Springs American Legion hall. Come as you are.
Phrases you can borrow
These are the lines families reach for when the plain facts are down and the obituary still feels flat.
“He is survived by his wife of fifty-one years, Carol Whitfield.”
The standard form, and the line where you name yourself. Including the number of years is optional; when the number is large, it does the work of an entire paragraph.
“He married Ellen Cobb on April 6, 1974, in a church neither of them belonged to, because it was free.”
How you married is often the warmest sentence in the piece. Write down the detail you would tell a stranger at a bus stop, and use that.
“They were married forty-three years and spent all of them within a mile of where they started.”
For a marriage that stayed in one place. One specific fact about the two of you says more than 'devoted husband' ever will.
“He served four years in the United States Marine Corps.”
One sentence, correct branch, correct years. Add rank, unit or medals only if he would have mentioned them himself.
“He was not a man who said much. He was the one who showed up.”
Right for the husband remembered for what he did rather than what he said. Do not use it if he was in fact a talker; people will notice.
“In his last years he was cared for at home by his family.”
A way to acknowledge the caregiving without letting the illness take over the obituary. You are also free to leave this out entirely.
“He was preceded in death by his first wife, Janet Prentiss.”
A second marriage does not erase the first. She goes in the preceded-in-death line; you appear at the top of the survivors as his wife.
“He is survived by his husband of nineteen years, Paul Reddick.”
Same form, no adjustment needed. Use whichever word the two of you used about each other: husband, spouse, partner.
“After a long and courageous battle with cancer”
Extremely common, and worth avoiding. Illness is not a contest, and the wording quietly implies a person can lose by not trying hard enough. 'After a long illness' or 'after two years of treatment' is plainer and kinder.
“He and Marie held hands in the car for fifty-one years, including in traffic.”
One concrete habit of the marriage. This is the sort of line people quote back to you at the reception, which is exactly what you want.
What to watch for
- Write the line about yourself last · Naming yourself in the third person is the sentence people stall on. Leave a gap, finish everything else, then come back. 'his wife of fifty-one years, Carol' is all it has to say.
- Find the DD-214 once and use it twice · Branch, dates of service and discharge status are all on it. The funeral home needs the same form to arrange military honors at the graveside, so pulling it out now saves a second search.
- One or two jobs, not the whole résumé · Obituaries for men drift into a work history. Name the job he would have named, add one line about why it mattered to him, and spend the saved space on what he was like.
- Decide about the illness once · 'After a long illness' and saying nothing at all are both complete answers. You do not owe anyone the details, and no reader will think less of the family for keeping it private.
- Keep your home address out of it · A published obituary tells everyone the family will be at a church at a known hour. Print the funeral home or church address only, and never yours.
- Agree the blended-family wording with the family · Stepchildren can be listed as 'his stepchildren' or simply among his children. Use whichever the family actually says out loud. Settle it before you submit anything, not after.
- Have one other person read the survivors list aloud · This is the part families regret. A missing grandchild or a misspelled daughter-in-law is easy to make on the third read of your own draft, and permanent once it is printed.
- You are allowed to hand this off · A son, a sister, or the funeral home’s staff can build a draft from facts you give them, and you correct it. Approving something is far easier than starting something.
The general rules on length, the order of survivors and what to leave out are on the main obituary examples page, and the step-by-step method is in how to write an obituary.
Other relationships
Common questions
How do I refer to myself in my husband’s obituary?
Should I say how many years we were married?
My husband was a veteran. What goes in the obituary?
He was married before. Do I mention his first wife?
I cannot get through writing this. Can someone else do it?
Our marriage was hard at times. Do I have to be honest about that?
Keep reading
- How to Write an ObituaryA calm, six-step way to write an obituary when you don’t know where to start, with the exact information to gather and full examples.
- Obituary TemplatesSix fill-in-the-blank obituary templates: traditional, short, newspaper, celebration of life, military and faith. Free to use and copy.
- Short Obituary ExamplesShort obituary examples between 50 and 150 words, written to fit newspaper line limits without losing the person.
- Obituary FormatThe standard obituary format explained section by section, with the order newspapers and funeral homes expect and how long each part should be.