Working with Roller Mcnutt Funeral Home Obits
I spent a Tuesday afternoon going through death certificates and talking to staff at Roller Mcnutt Funeral Home in Clinton. What I learned is that obituaries there work like most small-town places in Arkansas — personal, careful, and surprisingly detailed once you know how to ask for things. The process starts with a family member or close friend filling out what they call an obituary submission form. You can drop it off in person at their office on South Commerce Street, fax it, or email it if you have the contact. They require basic info: full legal name, age, city of residence, date of death, and surviving family members. That part is standard everywhere. Where Roller Mcnutt differs from a lot of places I've dealt with is their willingness to run longer, more narrative-style pieces without charging extra per line. Most funeral homes in the area will give you a 150-word free slot and then bill you by the word after that. Roller Mcnutt typically includes up to 400 words at no additional charge, which covers a proper biographical sketch for most local residents. I saw this firsthand when Mrs. Gladys Peeler's son wrote up her entire teaching career — 38 years at Clinton High School, the PTA involvement, the church choir — and it ran in full without a single overage fee. The funeral home just marked it as "submitted" and moved on.
They publish obituaries in the Clinton Times and sometimes cross-post to their own website. Turnaround time is usually two business days if you submit everything in order. If there's a funeral scheduled and the family needs same-day publication, that's an extra $75 expedite fee and only available for in-house arrangements. I've seen families miss that window because they assumed "next day" meant literally the following morning. It doesn't. It means two business days from receipt of a complete packet. One edge case that catches people off guard: if the deceased died out of state but the family wants the obituary run in Clinton papers, Roller Mcnutt requires proof of residency or a family tie to the area. A death certificate from another state isn't enough on its own. I learned this the hard way with an uncle who passed in Little Rock but had lived in Clinton for twenty years. The hospital wouldn't release records to the funeral home without a court order, and we were stuck waiting four extra days. The workaround was to get the probate judge in Clinton County to issue a simple residency verification, which the funeral home accepted in place of the out-of-state death certificate. Takes about a day and costs roughly $30 in filing fees. Photos are accepted in JPEG or PNG format, max file size 5MB. They'll print it in the newspaper and on their site, but the resolution needs to be at least 300 DPI for print quality. I've seen families send phone screenshots and wonder why the image came out blurry in the paper. Just export the photo properly before uploading.
Surviving family lists follow a specific order that some people argue about. The standard is spouse first, then children in age order, then grandchildren, then parents if living, then siblings. Roller Mcnutt's staff will let you tweak it if you ask, but they won't volunteer corrections. If you omit a child by accident, they run what you send. I fixed my own mistake by calling within two hours of submission and they pulled the page before it went to typeset. After that point, corrections cost $50 per occurrence. For military veterans, there's a separate section in the obituary that notes rank, branch, and years of service. Roller Mcnutt handles DD-214 verification themselves if you provide the document. Don't send a copy of your own paperwork — they need to see the original or a certified copy to run the military honors notation. This applies to any veteran, not just those who served in combat. My grandfather's obituary included his Navy service from 1952 to 1956 and they got it right on the first try because his DD-214 was in the file. The website at rollermcnutt.com has a guest book feature tied to each obituary. Families can enable or disable it. Some people prefer it closed during the immediate aftermath to avoid spam, then open it a week later for condolences. The funeral home doesn't moderate guest book messages, so whatever gets posted stays there unless a family member requests removal, which they will do upon request.
Get the Full Details
If you're arranging this for someone else and need the obituary to run by a specific date, submit at least three business days before the service. That buffer accounts for holidays, staff absences, and the occasional paperwork mix-up that happens during busy seasons. Spring and early summer tend to be heavier months in Clinton, and the paper publication schedule gets tight around election days when the newsroom is already running extra sections. Payment for the obituary itself is included in most standard funeral packages, but extras like continued online hosting beyond 30 days, larger photo prints, or expanded newspaper length run separate. They'll give you a written estimate before anything goes to print, and you sign off on it. No surprises on the final bill if you keep track of what you approved. The contact number for obituary inquiries is (501) 745-3441. Their office hours are Monday through Friday 8 AM to 5 PM, Saturday 9 AM to 12 PM. They don't take obituary submissions after 3 PM on weekdays because that cuts into typesetting time for the next morning's paper. I learned that one by watching a daughter-in-law get turned away at 4:45 PM with a printed form in her hand. She came back the next morning and it went through fine.
