General information from a recorded webinar, not legal advice for your situation.

What goes in an obituary?

Quick answer · 0:56 · From Legacy Writing: Obituaries and Memoirs · Recorded Aug 27, 2026

Short answer

An obituary usually includes a header with the name and dates, a summary of who the person was, early years, later years, those they are survived by, and memorial service details. Early and later years can bend to fit the person's life, whether that means career, family or something else.

Key points

  • Header: name, birth date and date of death.
  • Summary: the person in a nutshell.
  • End with survivors and memorial details.

Kate LeibfriedWriter and ghostwriter, Click Clack Writing · Guest presenter

Read this part of the transcript

So you’ll have a header, which is just the person’s name and birth date to date that they passed. A summary statement, which is essentially who is this person in a nutshell? Then we get into early years, which has to do with birth and siblings and elementary school and middle school, high school, and maybe a few achievements like maybe you were first chair French horn player in the band, or maybe you won an art award or a scholarship. So you might include some of those things. Later years, and these early years and later years I have left vague on purpose because everybody’s life is so different.

Created automatically from the recording. Full transcript on the webinar page.

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