These sample obituary templates are provided as guidelines to get you started on writing a death notice for your friend or loved one who has died. Just like how you might use a template for designing resumes or creating family chore charts, a template for an obituary gives you a starting point.

An obituary recounts the events and details of the final services and briefly covers biographical information about the person’s life. This identifying statement about the facts of the death The facts of death may be conveyed through a variety of mediums.

When announcing a loved one’s death, make sure you mention his or her surviving family members. While you do not need to name each grandson and cousin, it is important to write down an overall summary of family members who passed away prior to your loved one, and of surviving families. Grandchildren; great-grandchildren; and extended family members, like cousins, nieces, or nephews, are generally not named, but listed by number.

You determine where the particular details fit into your writing, and you do so with an air of individuality and affection. Include facts, and use adjectives and adverbs to bolster the text, as well as describe your dead person in a more personal way for the reader. Reading obituary examples sometimes feels formulaic or cold, and it is hard to imagine when you are filling in the blanks of someone you loved.

These bits of biographical information, woven together with aspects of Lewis Richard Weiss’s personality, does an excellent job of painting a picture in readers’ minds as to the kind of man he was. Mr. Joe Smith is a   man who died peacefully in his South London home, and who will be fondly remembered by his wife of 45 years, Mary, his son James (Lisa), and two grandchildren, Thomas and Lucy. Mum is preceded in death by her husband of 62 years, Willie Hamm; three sons, Mike Hamm, Robbie Hamm, and Harold Hamm; two daughters, Frances Jane Jones and Freda Mae Hamm; three grandchildren, Brent Carter, Willie Joe Hamm, and Avery Hamm; a brother, Roy Conley; and five sisters, Dorothy Sue Newell, Della Mae Lewis, Helen Brown, Opal Conley, and Nellie Patrick.

It is with great sadness that her family announced her passing. The family of (dead person’s name in full) of (city of residence) is saddened to announce that she/he passed away at the age of _____ years, on the day of (date, time).