Short Obituary Examples
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Short obituary examples under 60 words
These are the length most newspapers quote as a basic paid notice. Every name, town, funeral home and church below is invented, so you can lift the wording without copying a real family.
41 words: a father, graveside service
the shortest version that still works
Walter Dean Kimbrough, 91, of Ada, Oklahoma, died July 3, 2026, at home. He farmed the same section of land for sixty-one years. Survived by his daughters, Linda Pace and Joyce Kimbrough; six grandchildren. Graveside service 2 p.m. Tuesday, Rosedale Cemetery.
48 words: a mother
Marion Hobbs Teague, 79, of Ely, Nevada, died June 21, 2026. A retired postal clerk, she was known for the porch light she left on for anyone driving through late. Survived by her son, Curtis Teague, and three grandchildren. Memorial service 11 a.m. Saturday at Steptoe Valley Chapel.
52 words: a grandmother, Catholic
clipped style, no full sentences
Helen Marie Driscoll, 88, of Nashua, New Hampshire, died January 9, 2026. Born in Manchester to Owen and Grace Sullivan. Retired bookkeeper, Braeburn Hospital. Survived by her sons, Peter and Mark Driscoll; four grandchildren. Preceded in death by her husband, Raymond. Funeral Mass 10 a.m. Saturday, January 17, Holy Rosary Church, Nashua.
Notice what the shortest examples drop. There is no birth date, no school, no list of the clubs anyone belonged to. The clipped style in the third example, sentence fragments separated by periods, is standard newspaper practice and saves several lines. It does not read as cold in print.
Short obituary examples, 60 to 100 words
This band buys you one real sentence about the person. Use it on something specific. One concrete detail does more than four general ones.
60 words: a wife and mother
Ana Lucía Serrano, 67, of Corpus Christi, Texas, died at home on February 22, 2026, after a long illness. She taught bilingual kindergarten in the Windward Park schools for thirty years. She is survived by her husband, Ruben; her son, Javier Serrano; and her sister, Marta Ybarra. A rosary will be prayed Thursday at 6 p.m. at Guerra Funeral Home.
83 words: a grandmother
Ruby Nell Carver, 94, of Tupelo, Mississippi, went home to be with the Lord on May 30, 2026.
Born in Pontotoc County on October 12, 1931, she worked in the Fairmount school cafeteria for twenty-six years and made a caramel cake nobody has managed to duplicate.
She is survived by her children, Wanda Sheffield, Larry Carver and Denise Pruitt; eleven grandchildren; nineteen great-grandchildren; and a host of nieces and nephews.
Services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church.
90 words: a husband and father
Dennis Ray Hollis, 73, of Bend, Oregon, died on March 14, 2026, at Cascade Valley Medical Center.
Dennis was born June 8, 1952, in Klamath Falls to Ray and Dorothy Hollis. He worked as a diesel mechanic for Timberline Freight for twenty-eight years and could fix anything with an engine in it.
He is survived by his wife of forty-nine years, Sharon; his daughters, Kim Alvarez (Tony) and Beth Hollis; and five grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 21, at Bend Community Church.
Short obituary examples, 100 to 150 words
At this length you can carry a birth date, a marriage, a job, one personal detail, a full survivors list and complete service details. For most families this is the sweet spot: it reads like an obituary rather than an announcement, and it still fits a paid notice.
106 words: a young man, sudden death
Tyler Wade Brennan, 29, of Fort Collins, Colorado, died unexpectedly on June 5, 2026.
Tyler was born in Loveland on April 17, 1997. He studied forestry at Cache Ridge College and worked four seasons as a wildland firefighter with the Longmeadow Fire District. He played bass badly, cooked well, and answered his phone at any hour.
He is survived by his parents, Wade and Kelly Brennan; his sister, Megan Brennan; and his partner, Alex Ruiz.
A service will be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 13, at Grant Avenue Hall. In place of flowers, the family asks for gifts to the Longmeadow Firefighters Relief Fund.
121 words: a veteran
Frank Otis Lindley, 86, of Bowling Green, Kentucky, died on August 19, 2026.
Frank was born January 5, 1940, in Scottsville, Kentucky. He served in the United States Army from 1959 to 1963, then spent thirty-four years as a route driver for Barren River Dairy. He kept a spotless truck and an unruly tomato patch.
He is survived by his wife, Doris; his sons, Gary Lindley and Randall Lindley (Sue); six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his brother, Roy.
Visitation will be held Thursday from 4 to 7 p.m. at Hilltop Funeral Home. Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at the funeral home chapel, with burial and military honors at Green Ridge Cemetery.
149 words: a mother, full Catholic service details
about as long as a paid notice usually goes
Patricia Ann Delacroix, 81, of Metairie, Louisiana, died peacefully on April 2, 2026, at St. Brendan Medical Center with her family around her.
Pat was born in New Orleans on September 19, 1944, to Emile and Vera Boudreaux. She married Charles Delacroix in June 1966 and they had fifty-nine years together. She worked in the front office at Rosemont Elementary for twenty-two years, where she knew every child’s name and most of their grandmothers’.
She is survived by her husband, Charles; her children, Charles Jr. (Amy), Renee Guidry (Paul) and Suzanne Delacroix; seven grandchildren; and her brother, Emile Boudreaux Jr. She was preceded in death by her parents and her sister, Colette.
Visitation will be held Friday, April 10, from 9 to 11 a.m. at Bayou Ridge Funeral Home, followed by a funeral Mass at 11:30 a.m. at St. Amelie Catholic Church. Burial will follow at Fairview Memorial Park.
If you want longer examples than these, the full obituary examples page has standard and long versions written for the funeral home website and the program.
Short obituaries for particular situations
Not every family is announcing a service on Saturday. These five cover the situations that come up most often and are hardest to word.
68 words: no service planned
Marjorie Hale Pruitt, 89, of Sedona, Arizona, died on March 27, 2026. She was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, taught piano for fifty years, and moved west at seventy for the light. She is survived by her nephew, Peter Hale, and her longtime friend Dorothy Suarez. At her request, there will be no service. Cards may be sent to the family in care of Red Rock Funeral Home.
69 words: cremation, service to be held later
Gerald “Jerry” Amos Thibault, 77, of Burlington, Vermont, died at home on October 12, 2026. He was a carpenter for forty years and built half the porches on Loomis Street. He is survived by his wife, Anne; his son, Marc Thibault; and two granddaughters. Cremation has taken place. A celebration of his life will be held in the spring, when the ground has thawed and the family can gather.
62 words: private family service
Constance Wren Abbott, 72, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, died on July 8, 2026, after a long illness. She was a research librarian at the state archives for thirty-one years. She is survived by her wife, Diane Abbott; her brother, Neil Wren; and three nieces. A private family service will be held. Memorial gifts may be made to the Piedmont Literacy Project.
69 words: a former resident who died out of state
for the hometown paper
Howard Lee Simms, 90, formerly of Erie, Pennsylvania, died on October 2, 2026, in Sarasota, Florida, where he had lived since 1998. He taught shop at Bayfront High School for twenty-nine years. He is survived by his daughter, Janet Simms Kowalski, of Erie; his son, Howard Jr., of Tampa; and four grandchildren. A graveside service will be held at Ridgeview Cemetery in Erie at a date to be announced.
72 words: someone who outlived most of the family
Estelle Marie Dupree, 101, of Natchez, Mississippi, died on February 5, 2026, at Willow Bend Nursing Center. She was born in 1924 and worked as a seamstress for six decades. She was preceded in death by her husband, Alton; her sisters, Cleo and Bernice; and her son, Alton Jr. She is survived by her granddaughter, Karen Dupree Lloyd, of Jackson, and by the staff who cared for her. Services will be private.
Cutting a long obituary down to size
Most families do not start short. They write everything, take it to the funeral home, and find out what it costs. Cutting is easier than it looks, because a first draft is usually about a third adjectives and affiliations.
Here is a real-shaped first draft, and the same notice trimmed.
Before: 309 words
the version the family wrote on the first night
Eleanor Grace Whitfield, 83, of Ottumwa, Iowa, passed away peacefully in the early hours of Tuesday, March 3, 2026, at Cedar Meadows Care Center, surrounded by the love of her devoted family, after a long and courageous battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Eleanor was born on July 22, 1942, in Albia, Iowa, the beloved daughter of the late Harold and Verna Simmons. She graduated from Albia High School in 1960, where she was a member of the choir and the pep club, and later attended Wapello Community College. On June 14, 1963, she was united in holy matrimony to Ronald Dean Whitfield at First Christian Church in Albia, and they shared fifty-seven wonderful years together before his passing in 2020.
Eleanor was employed for many years at Whitfield & Sons Hardware, and later worked part-time at the Ottumwa Public Library. She was a devoted member of Trinity Lutheran Church, where she served on the altar guild, and she also belonged to the Ottumwa Garden Club and the Wapello County Historical Society. Eleanor enjoyed quilting, baking, watching birds, and above all spending time with her precious grandchildren, who were the light of her life.
She is survived by her children, Ronald Whitfield Jr. (Debra) of Ottumwa and Sandra Vance (Michael) of Des Moines; six grandchildren, Tyler, Emma, Grace, Nathan, Sophie and Owen; three great-grandchildren; and her sister, Marlene Boyd of Albia. She was preceded in death by her husband, Ronald; her parents; and her brother, Dale Simmons.
Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, March 9, 2026, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Ottumwa, with Pastor James Reinhardt officiating. Visitation will be held on Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. at Reece Funeral Home. Burial will follow at Ottumwa Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be directed to Trinity Lutheran Church or the Wapello County Alzheimer’s Fund.
After: 113 words
same facts, about a third of the length
Eleanor Grace Whitfield, 83, of Ottumwa, Iowa, died on March 3, 2026, at Cedar Meadows Care Center.
Born July 22, 1942, in Albia to Harold and Verna Simmons, she married Ronald Whitfield in 1963 and worked at Whitfield & Sons Hardware and the Ottumwa Public Library. She quilted, baked, and watched birds from the kitchen window.
She is survived by her children, Ronald Jr. (Debra) and Sandra Vance (Michael); six grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and her sister, Marlene Boyd. She was preceded in death by her husband, Ronald.
Services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Monday, March 9, at Trinity Lutheran Church, with visitation Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. at Reece Funeral Home.
What came out, and what it cost
- Peacefully, devoted, beloved, precious, wonderful · roughly a line and a half, and the reader assumed all of it anyway
- A long and courageous battle with Alzheimer’s · the family kept the diagnosis private in the paper and mentioned it at the service
- High school choir, pep club, community college · nothing about her in 2026 depended on 1960
- Garden club, historical society, altar guild · three separate lines; the church itself stayed, in the service details
- Six grandchildren named individually · replaced with the count, saving two full lines
- The officiant, the cemetery, the charity · anyone who needs these can call the funeral home
- The year of birth stayed. The date of death stayed. Every name of a living survivor stayed.
The long version is not wasted. It goes on the funeral home page and into the funeral program, where length costs nothing. Only the newspaper needs the short one.
What to cut, and what to keep
| Cut | Keep | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Courageous battle, passed away peacefully, deeply loved | Died on March 3 at home | Adjectives cost the same per line as facts. Plain language also reads as respect rather than distance. |
| Every club, board and committee | The church or the one organization that mattered | A list of affiliations is the fastest three lines to lose and the least missed. |
| Grandchildren and great-grandchildren by name | Counts: six grandchildren, three great-grandchildren | Counts are accurate and truthful, and each saves most of a line. |
| Officiant, cemetery, reception, repast | The one service the public is invited to | People who need the rest will call the funeral home, and most of them already know. |
| Full middle names of living survivors | First and last names only | Middle names of the living are a security detail as well as a cost. There is no reason to print them. |
| The paragraph about how they met | Married Ronald Whitfield in 1963 | In a paid notice the date carries the story. Save the long version for the program and the eulogy. |
One thing never to cut: the day, date and time of the service. If the date and the weekday disagree, as in “Saturday, March 9” when March 9 is a Monday, people will show up on the wrong day. Check it against a calendar before you send it, not after.
How newspapers actually measure length
Papers rarely charge by the word. Most charge by the line or by the column inch, which means the length you see on your screen tells you nothing useful. A newspaper column is narrow, so a line of print holds far fewer characters than a line in a word processor.
Things that add lines you did not count
- The name line · often set in bold or capitals, and sometimes billed at a higher rate
- Blank lines between paragraphs · many papers count them; four paragraphs can cost three extra lines
- A photo · priced separately, usually as a block of column inches
- A military or fraternal emblem · same idea, and some papers charge a flat fee for it
- Long names and long town names · one long survivor name can push a line over and create a new one
- Extra publication days · running Friday and Sunday is usually two charges, not one
The only reliable number is the one the paper gives you. Send the text and ask for a written quote with the line count, the run dates and the total, before you approve anything. The full process, including who submits it and when, is on how to submit an obituary to a newspaper.
Where the short version goes
A short obituary usually has three jobs: the paid newspaper notice, the funeral home listing, and the panel in the program. The newspaper version is the one under pressure. The other two can be as long as you like.
If you have not written anything yet, start from a fill-in-the-blank template rather than a blank page, and check what to include in an obituary before you send it, so you are not chasing a birth date at ten at night. If you would rather answer a few questions and start from a draft, Reposa writes a first draft free and sets it into the program layout at the size the panel allows. A second draft, such as a shorter version for the newspaper, comes with writing help, or you can cut the first one down yourself.
One last permission, in case you need it: the notice does not have to be beautiful. It has to be correct. Get the names, the date and the service right, and the rest is generosity.
Common questions
How short can an obituary be?
What is the difference between a short obituary and a death notice?
Will the newspaper cut my obituary if it is too long?
Should a short obituary include a photo?
Can I publish a short notice in the paper and a longer one elsewhere?
Do I have to list every grandchild by name?
Is it disrespectful to write a short obituary?
Keep reading
- Obituary ExamplesNine complete obituary examples in short, standard and full length, plus three or four more written for each relationship, with wording you can adapt in minutes.
- Obituary TemplatesSix fill-in-the-blank obituary templates: traditional, short, newspaper, celebration of life, military and faith. Free to use and copy.
- How to Submit an Obituary to a NewspaperHow newspaper obituary submission works, what it typically costs per line, deadlines, and the free places you can publish instead.
- 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.