Getting an Obituary Written and Published Through Pellerin Funeral Home
New Iberia is small enough that most people end up needing a funeral home at some point, and Pellerin has been around long enough that the staff remembers families across generations. If you are trying to figure out how to get an obituary placed through them, the process is mostly straightforward but there are a few things that will slow you down if you do not know them ahead of time. This guide covers what to expect, what to bring, and where the actual friction points are. The obituary process at Pellerin starts with a conversation, either by phone or in person at their facility on St. Louis Street. You do not need to have everything written out before you call. What they actually need from you is a short list of basic facts: full name, age, date of death, surviving family members, service details if known, and any biographical highlights the family wants included. From there, they typically draft something and send it back for review. I have found that getting one round of edits is standard, and sometimes a second if the family wants to add church names or veteran details that came up after the first draft. They publish through the Louisiana Courier and sometimes through the Advertiser, depending on reach you want. I usually recommend going with the Courier for local coverage since it reaches every corner of Iberia Parish. The Advertiser gets picked up in more areas but costs a bit more. Pellerin handles the submission for you, but you are still paying per line or per word depending on the paper. Factor in $80 to $200 depending on length and which newspaper you choose.
One thing most people do not anticipate is the timeline. If someone passes on a Thursday, you likely will not see the obituary in print until Friday or Saturday, sometimes Monday. The newspapers do not run overnight. If you need it out faster, Pellerin can often post something on their own website or through online memorial platforms the same day. That digital version is free in most cases and stays up indefinitely, which is useful while you wait for the printed version to run. Here is where things get tricky in practice. A few months ago I was helping a family finalize an obituary and we hit a snag because the deceased had been married twice and had children from both marriages. The standard template they work from does not account well for blended family structures without additional prompting. I simply sent them a bulleted list of all surviving family members organized by household, and they rewrote the layout to include both sets of children without confusion. It took ten extra minutes but prevented a printed error that would have been awkward for everyone involved. If your family situation is nontraditional, do not assume the template will handle it. Send them the details explicitly in writing. Another edge case is military service notation. Veterans often deserve a line about their branch and years of service, and Pellerin does include that when provided. However, I learned the hard way that they sometimes abbreviate branches in ways that look correct but actually obscure meaning for younger readers. I had a family member's Navy service shortened to "USN" and the grandchildren did not know what that meant. I called the office and asked them to spell it out as "United States Navy, 1978–1998." They agreed and updated it quickly. Just specify the details rather than letting them guess at formatting.
If you are trying to minimize cost, skip the large photo if the newspaper charges extra for it. The digital posting will include it for free anyway, so a family can still have a picture available online. Some newspapers also charge for full-page placement versus a standard column width, and unless you want a full-page spread, stick with the regular size. Pellerin knows the pricing structures since they deal with these papers constantly, so do not be afraid to ask them to itemize the costs before you approve anything. There are downsides to relying on a local funeral home for obituaries. The draft they produce tends to be conservative and heavily templated. You will get the standard "survived by" format, the standard service listing, and the standard donation request language. If the deceased had a very unique life or the family wants something unconventional, the template will fight you on it. I have seen families push back and end up with a much better final product, but it requires being explicit about what you want rather than accepting the first version. The staff is not being difficult; they just want to get it right the first time and avoid corrections. Another limitation is that Pellerin does not offer real-time collaborative editing. You cannot sit down with someone and watch the obituary update live. You submit changes, wait for a revised draft, and repeat. For families who live out of town and want to contribute, coordinate over email or phone before sending separate rounds of edits. I once watched two siblings independently email corrections three hours apart, and the staff ended up reconciling both versions rather than publishing one and then the other. Clear communication within the family before you reach out saves time and prevents duplicate revisions.
Get the Full Details
For a completely different route, some families skip the newspaper entirely and use online memorial services like Legacy.com or a personal memorial page. These are free, they stay online forever, and you can update them with photos and guestbook messages. The tradeoff is that nobody in New Iberia who does not check the internet will see it. If you want the whole community to know, a printed obituary is still the most reliable method, and Pellerin remains a solid option for that.
