The Paid Death Notice

Newspapers have certainly taken a financial hit as classified ads have moved off the page and onto the web. But a bit of growth for newspapers has been the revenue from the paid death notice. These are notices, often quite lengthy (therefore expensive) often accompanied by a photo (sure to add to the cost) composed (probably with an editor's help) by family members who wish to inform those that read them of the recent passing of a loved one.

These paid death notices differ radically from the bylined news story obituaries written by the newspaper's writers. The bylined obits are generally of historical interest in that someone of notoriety in a particular field has passed away. Someone who has lived a long life and who gets a bylined obit gives the obit writers a chance to blend in the details of the times these people lived in; their life placed in context.

The paid notices, with or without a photo, give extensive details about the names of the surviving relatives, who they are married to, their children's names, dates of demise of relatives and spouses who may have predeceased the subject of the paid notice. The notices can be a bit goppy and overly sentimental at times, providing details that do not seem to have much bearing on anything. One of these notices that once caught my eye told us what the deceased's last meal was seasoned with. Cinnamon.

The photos that sometimes accompany these notices are generally of the person looking robust in middle age. You can bet that unless they've left us when that photo was taken, their appearance at their demise was probably sufficiently different from that photo. Perhaps even unrecognizable to the photo.

So when I saw in today's NYT a photo that accompanied a rather lengthy paid notice of someone who looked as old as the person being described, 97, attention was paid.

The notice is not he longest one I ever saw, but its 11 column inches makes it an outlier. In it, we learn of Jamie Porter Gagarin, a woman born in 1918 who married a month after completing courses at Bennington College in three years and earning her degree in 1939. She is described as growing up "in an age and in circumstances where she was not expected to work." Within nine years of her marriage to her husband of 62 years, Andrew, she gave birth to four children, three of whom survive her. Her husband passed away in 2002, but no details of what he did or where the family's income was derived from is given. This obit is not about Andrew.

Jamie was "a smart independent, private and unfailingly generous and polite person." Her anti-Vietnam War activities through the 'Clergy and Layman Against the War' organization earned a place on President Nixon's "enemies list," a recognition she was particularly proud of.

She lived in Litchfield, Connectict and made frequent trips to New York City. "Her last years were spent at her home in Litchfield, still making the occasional trip to the city and still enjoying the visits of her children and grandchildren."

There are no religious services mentioned, but there is something you do not see often. "A celebration of her life will be held on Saturday April 16 at noon at her home at 108 Gallows Lane in Litchfield."

The assumption is you might need to be invited to attend, but that is not specifically stated. A paid notice this extensively detailed has got to attract a bit of a gathering beyond what might really be expected. Litchfield is not a large place, but it is on the map, and it is not too far from New York City. My White Flower Farm catalog comes from Litchfield, and I've visited there.

When my father-in-law passed away in 1980 the Daily News death notice that my wife placed served to attract the professional Irish mourners, in one particular case an elderly couple who commented on how handsome Patrick looked in the coffin and how it was a shame someone from Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo, Ireland, had passed away, leaving the village with one less left on earth that came from there.

The couple took particular interest in the whereabouts of Patrick's wife, Helen, who that afternoon did not come down to the funeral home, but would later make the evening session. When my wife responded to a question by the couple as to where Helen was from, my wife informed them that she was English, from Liverpool. At that point the couple politely, but quickly excused themselves and went out and down the hall looking for someone else to pay their respects to. They hadn't expected to trip over an English/Irish marriage.

I'm not at all saying anything like this may happen to the Gargarin family, but you never really know who you might attract when you give your home address.

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