Obituary Template

How to write an obituary with this template

Type the name and dates on the page, then enter what you know in the column beside it: places, family, work, interests, the service and any donations. The draft fills in on the page in the tone you pick. Read it aloud, check every name and date with a relative, and type over any sentence.

1. Pick a design and a tone.
2. Type the name and the two dates on the page.
3. Fill in the facts you know in the column. Leave out any you do not want.
4. Read the draft and type over anything that needs your own words.
5. Check the word count, then download the PDF or Word file, or Copy text.

A sample draft

This is the opening the template writes for a made-up person, Eleanor Marie Sample: "Eleanor Marie Sample, 84, of Riverton, passed away peacefully on March 3, 2026, at home." The paragraphs that follow cover her early life, her work and interests, the family, the service and a line about donations. A sample with every fact filled in runs 134 words in the traditional tone and 79 in the brief death notice. For more wording to start from, read the obituary examples, which list 23 made-up obituaries by relationship and length; each has an Edit button that opens the template with its facts filled in.

Facts the draft uses

• The name, birth date and death date. The age is worked out from the two dates.
• Where the person lived, was born, and died, plus the parents' names.
• School, marriage, work, military service, a congregation or club, and interests.
• Family who survive and family who died earlier.
• The kind of service, its date, time and place, and one more line such as a burial.
• A charity for donations in place of flowers.

What should an obituary include?

An obituary names the person and gives the date of death, usually with the age and hometown. It then adds a short life story, the family who survive and those who died earlier, and the service details. A closing line can name a charity for donations. Check each spelling and date with a relative before you submit.

Leave out any fact the family would rather not share. A line you skip in the column is also skipped in the draft, so the text never shows a blank. The cause of death has no field in this template; the Died peacefully and similar choices only describe how the death is worded. Our guide How to Write an Obituary walks through the facts to gather, the order to write them in and what to keep private.

How long should an obituary be?

There is no fixed length. A newspaper may price a notice by its length, so ask the paper for its rate and any word or line limit before you write. As a guide, the sample traditional draft on this page runs 134 words, and the same facts as a brief death notice run 79.

The count in the column measures the name, the dates line and the text, as you would paste them into a form. It shows words, characters with spaces and characters without spaces, because forms count in different ways. The newspaper column layout puts the text at about 2.25 inches wide, so you can see how long the notice runs down a column.

What is the difference between an obituary and a death notice?

A death notice is a short announcement of a death, usually with the service details. An obituary tells more of the person's life. The Library of Congress notes that the death notice is the earliest form of the obituary. Pick the Brief death notice tone for the short form, or another tone for the full obituary.

The Library of Congress blog post Mourn Not! A History of Obituaries in American Newspapers traces how the short notice grew into the longer life story. A brief death notice from this template opens with the surname in capitals, then the age, hometown and date, followed by the family and the service.

Where can I publish an obituary?

Send the text to a local newspaper, post it on the funeral home's website, or share it on an online memorial page. Ask the funeral home whether it will post the notice and submit it to the paper for you. Check each outlet's length limit, deadline and rate, then paste the plain text from Copy text.

Plain text pastes cleanly into an online form. Use the PDF to share the page by email or to print copies for the service, and the Word file if someone else will edit it. For the service itself, a flyer can carry the time and place, and a thank-you card covers the notes that follow. A donation receipt helps a charity that is named in the notice.

Which tone should I choose?

Traditional uses formal wording such as passed away and survived by. Warm life story reads like a short portrait and adds a closing line about being missed. Brief death notice keeps to the name, date, family and service. Religious-neutral uses plain wording such as died, with no faith language.

All four tones use the same facts, so you can switch between them and compare the result. If you have typed over the draft, press Use the suggested text to bring back the wording the facts give, then choose another tone.

How do I fit an obituary to a newspaper column?

Choose the Newspaper column layout in the Design section. It narrows the text to about 2.25 inches, so you can see how the notice runs down a column, and the word and character count updates as you type. Newspapers set their own limits and rates, so ask the paper for both.