Hilton Head Island — HHI.com

How to Write an Obituary, With a Free Template

Quiet salt marsh and open sky at Pinckney Island, beside Hilton Head

Fill in the template below and copy your obituary in a few minutes, or follow the step-by-step guide to write it yourself.

Start the fill-in template

Fill In Your Obituary Template

Type what you know and leave the rest blank. The obituary template fills in as you go, and anything you skip stays out. Choose the short version for a newspaper notice or the full one for an online memorial page.

Which version?

How to refer to them

The basics
Their life

Choose the full version above to add what they loved, faith, military service and a memory.

Family
The service

Your obituary

9 words

[Full name], [age], of [town], died [date of death].

Nothing you type is saved or sent anywhere. It stays on this page and is gone when you close it, so copy it first.

Two Templates to Copy: Short and Full

Copy either template into an email or a document, then replace each part in [brackets]. Delete any line that doesn’t fit.

Short obituary template, for the newspaper

About 140 words

Newspapers charge by length, so this version keeps to the facts and the service.

[Full name], [age], of [town], died [day of the week], [month and date], [year], [at home / at the hospital / with family beside him or her]. [First name] was born in [year] in [city and state] to [parents’ names]. [He/She] [graduated from school or college] and worked as [job] at [employer] for [number] years. [He/She] moved to Hilton Head Island in [year] and was a member of [church, club or group]. [He/She] is survived by [his/her] [husband/wife] of [number] years, [name]; [children, with their spouses in parentheses and their towns]; [number] grandchildren; and [brothers and sisters]. [He/She] was predeceased by [names]. A [funeral / memorial service / celebration of life] will be held at [time] on [day and date] at [place]. [Funeral home] is handling the arrangements. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to [charity].

Full obituary template, for an online memorial

About 400 words

For the funeral home’s memorial page, where there is room for the stories that sound like them.

[Full name, with a nickname in quotation marks if they went by one], [age], of [town], died [day of the week], [month and date], [year], [at home / at the hospital / surrounded by family]. [First name] was born in [year] in [city and state], the [oldest / youngest / only] child of [parents’ names]. [He/She] grew up [where, and one detail about childhood: the farm, the neighborhood, the family business]. [He/She] graduated from [high school] and [college, trade school or first job]. In [year], [he/she] married [spouse’s name], whom [he/she] met [how they met]. Together they raised [number] children in [town]. [First name] worked as [job] at [employer] for [number] years. [One sentence about what the work meant to them, or what colleagues remember.] [He/She] served in the [branch of the military] from [year] to [year] [during the war or era, and rank if the family wishes]. After [retiring / visiting for many summers], [first name] and [spouse’s first name] moved to Hilton Head Island in [year]. On the island, [he/she] [played golf, fished, sailed, walked the beach each morning, sang in the choir], and [he/she] volunteered with [group]. [He/She] was a member of [church or faith community]. Family and friends will remember [his/her] [a quality: kindness, quick wit, generosity], [a habit: Sunday dinners, handwritten notes, never missing a grandchild’s game] and [a saying or a story they told]. [He/She] was proudest of [the family, a garden, a career moment, a cause they worked for], and [he/she] never [a small, true detail: missed a birthday, left a dish in the sink, turned down a round of golf]. [He/She] is survived by [his/her] [husband/wife] of [number] years, [name]; [his/her] children, [names, with spouses in parentheses and their towns]; [number] grandchildren, [names if the family wishes]; [number] great-grandchildren; and [brothers, sisters and others close to them]. [He/She] was predeceased by [parents, a spouse, siblings or a child]. A [funeral / memorial service / celebration of life] will be held at [time] on [day and date] at [place, with the street address]. [Visitation will be from (time) to (time) before the service.] [Burial will follow at (cemetery).] [A reception will follow at (place).] [Funeral home] is handling the arrangements. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to [charity, with its address or website]. Family and friends may share a memory in the online guest book at [funeral home’s website].

What to Gather Before You Write

Collect these before you start. Ask one relative to check names and dates with each side of the family. A misspelled grandchild is the mistake families notice most.

  • Full legal name, any nickname, and a maiden name if the family wants it used
  • Age, the town where they lived, and the date and place of death
  • Year and town of birth, and the parents’ names
  • Schools, work, and military service: branch, years and rank (the discharge papers, the DD-214, have the details)
  • Marriage: the spouse’s name and the year they married
  • Family who survive them, in order: spouse, children and their spouses, grandchildren, brothers and sisters. Check every spelling and every town
  • Family who died before them
  • Faith, clubs, volunteer work, and what they loved to do
  • Two or three stories or habits that sound like them
  • The service: type, day, time and place, and any visitation, burial or reception
  • The funeral home, and a charity for memorial gifts
  • A clear, recent photo, if you plan to include one

The Five Parts of an Obituary

This is how to write an obituary in the order readers expect. Most obituaries, short or long, follow these five parts.

The announcement

One sentence: the full name, age, town, and the date they died. Add where or how only if the family wants to (“at home”, “after a long illness”). This is the sentence most people read, so keep it plain.

The life story

Where they were born and grew up, school, work, marriage, and the move to the island if they came from somewhere else. Pick the details that sound like them, not a full résumé. One or two short paragraphs is plenty for a newspaper.

What made them who they were

Faith, service, clubs and volunteer work, and the things they loved. A small, true detail (“never finished a crossword in anything but ink”) says more than “loved by all”.

The family

“Survived by” lists the living family, closest first: spouse, children (their spouses in parentheses), grandchildren, then brothers and sisters, each with their town. “Predeceased by” names family who died before them. Agree on step-family, partners and former spouses before you write.

The service and memorial gifts

The type of service, day, time and place, and any visitation, burial or reception. Then the funeral home handling the arrangements, and where to send memorial gifts in lieu of flowers.

An Example Obituary

This example shows how to write an obituary from the five parts above, at the length of a full online memorial.

An example only. Ruthie Delacorte is an invented person.

Ruth Ann “Ruthie” Delacorte, 84, of Hilton Head Island, died Friday, October 3, 2026, at home with her family beside her. Ruthie was born in 1942 in Columbus, Ohio, the youngest of four children of Walter and June Hale. She grew up above her parents’ hardware store and could still name every bin of screws. She graduated from Ohio State University and taught high school English in Westerville for 31 years, where former students still quoted her red-pen notes back to her. In 1966 she married Frank Delacorte, whom she met at a church picnic. They raised two children in Westerville and spent every August on Hilton Head before moving to the island for good in 1998. On the island, Ruthie walked the beach each morning, kept a vegetable garden the deer loved as much as she did, and sang alto in her church choir. She volunteered at the library for twenty years and never finished a Sunday crossword in anything but ink. She is survived by her husband of 60 years, Frank; her son, Mark (Lisa), of Atlanta; her daughter, Jean, of Bluffton; five grandchildren; and her sister, Carol Hale, of Dayton. She was predeceased by her parents and her brothers, Tom and Bill. A celebration of life will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, October 18, at her church, with a reception to follow. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to the hospice that cared for her.

Tone, Faith, Military Service and Privacy

Write it in their voice, not a formal one. A light line is welcome if it sounds like them: the joke they always told, the team they never forgave. Read it aloud to the family. If anyone winces, take it out.

Faith. Use the words the family uses, name the church or congregation, and include the clergy leading the service if the family wishes.

Military service. Give the branch, the years, and the rank or the war if the family wishes. The Lowcountry has many veterans and retired service members. For military honors at the service, or burial at Beaufort National Cemetery, the funeral home will ask for the discharge papers (the DD-214), so find them early.

Cause of death. Only with the family’s agreement. “After a long illness” or “suddenly” is enough. If the family names an illness, it is often because they are asking for gifts to a charity that fights it.

Privacy. Leave out the exact date of birth, the home address and the mother’s maiden name. Identity thieves read obituaries for these. Because an obituary also says when the family will be away at the service, ask a neighbor or friend to stay at the house that day.

Sending an Obituary on Hilton Head and in Bluffton

Once it is written, here is where it goes. For where to read island obituaries, see our guide to Hilton Head obituaries.

The funeral home

Most families start here. The funeral home will review what you wrote, send it to the papers, and post the full obituary on its own memorial page with a guest book. Bring your draft to the arrangements meeting. In Bluffton, see the Bluffton funeral homes and where Bluffton obituaries are posted.

See Hilton Head funeral homes

The Island Packet

The Island Packet covers Hilton Head, Bluffton and the rest of Beaufort County, and runs its obituaries on Legacy.com. You can send one through the funeral home or submit it yourself online. Notices are priced by length and by photo, so the short version saves money. Ask for the cost before you approve the proof.

Submit an obituary to the Island Packet

The Hilton Head Sun

The island’s free local paper keeps its own list of obituaries. Ask the funeral home to send yours there too, or call the paper to ask how it takes them.

Their hometown paper

Many people on Hilton Head moved here from somewhere else. A short notice in the paper where they grew up or worked, or in a college alumni magazine, reaches the friends who knew them before the island. Ask the funeral home to place it, or contact that paper.

Flowers for the service

If the family welcomes flowers, the obituary is where people learn the service time and place. For Bluffton services, see the Bluffton florists.

See Hilton Head florists

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should an obituary be?

A newspaper obituary is often 150 to 300 words, because newspapers charge by length. An online memorial page on a funeral home’s website has no limit, and 300 to 500 words is common. Many families run the short version in the paper and the full version online.

Who writes the obituary?

Usually a close family member, often with help from the funeral home, which can write it from the details you give or edit what you write. Some people write their own ahead of time and leave it with their papers.

What should not be included in an obituary?

Leave out the exact date of birth, the home address and the mother’s maiden name, which identity thieves use. Leave out the cause of death unless the family agrees to share it, and anything about family matters that not everyone has agreed on.

How much does an obituary cost?

The Island Packet prices obituaries by length and by whether a photo is included, so ask for the cost before you approve the proof. Running the short version in the paper and the full version on the funeral home’s website keeps the cost down. Ask your funeral home what its online memorial page includes.

How do I write an obituary for a family member?

Gather the facts first, then write it in five parts: the announcement, the life story, what made them who they were, the family, and the service. The fill-in template on this page puts the sentences together as you type. Ask another relative to check the names and dates before it runs.

Is what I type into the template saved anywhere?

No. The template only arranges the words you type, on your own screen. Nothing is saved or sent, and it is gone when you close the page, so copy it before you leave.

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