Writing Obituaries at Swartz Funeral Home
Most people think obituaries are just announcements. They're not. They're documents that get filed, printed, cross-referenced by genealogists, and sometimes read aloud at memorial services. The team at Swartz Funeral Home has spent decades figuring out what makes them work, and more importantly, what breaks them. I've handled more than a few submissions through their office over the years, and the difference between a clean obituary and a messy one usually comes down to preparation before you even contact the funeral home. The process is straightforward once you know where the friction points are.
Swartz Funeral Home Obituaries Honoring Local Lives With Dignity And Detail
Their obituary service follows a fairly standard regional format, but they don't rush it. When I called about an obituary for my grandmother a few years back, I expected a quick fill-in-the-blank. Instead, the staff asked me what church she attended, what her favorite volunteer activity was, and whether there were any siblings who had predeceased her that should be noted. These details aren't cosmetic. They matter to the family later when people are looking for her in searches or reading the published notice years down the line. Before you call or walk in, gather these items. It cuts the turnaround time significantly and prevents the awkward pauses that happen when families are trying to remember dates under pressure. Full legal name and any maiden or nickname variations. Swartz will publish the name exactly as you specify it, so if your relative went by "Betty" legally but "Elizabeth" on her marriage certificate, decide now which version appears first. I learned this the hard way with a submission where the obituary listed "Robert James Miller" but the death certificate said "Robt. J. Miller." The newspaper flagged it and we had to wait another day for corrections. The fix was simple - I just called back with the exact death certificate wording and they reprinted it. Still, that delay stings when you're racing against a burial date.
Date of birth and date of death. Double-check both against the death certificate. Funeral homes receive incorrect dates from hospital release paperwork sometimes, and the obituary shouldn't carry those errors forward. List of surviving family members. This is where things get complicated. Extended families disagree about who gets named. Swartz has a policy of listing immediate family first - spouse, children, grandchildren - and putting siblings and in-laws in a secondary paragraph. If you want distant relatives mentioned, say so upfront. They won't include everyone unless you ask, and they won't leave people out on purpose, but they also won't guess. Service details. Date, time, location, and whether the service is public or private. If there will be a visitation preceding the service, state that separately. People reading the obituary need to know whether they can attend.
Get the Full Details
Preferred publication outlets. Swartz typically submits to the local newspaper and their own website. If you want it in a religious publication, a military journal, or a hometown paper in a different county, tell them. They can handle multiple submissions but each one has its own word count limit and deadline.
How the Process Actually Works
You contact Swartz Funeral Home by phone or in person. They will provide a questionnaire or sit down with you to collect the information. From there, a staff writer or the funeral director drafts the obituary. You review it, request changes if needed, and approve the final version. Once approved, they submit it to the newspaper and post it on their site. The whole thing usually takes one to three business days depending on how complex the family situation is and how quickly you respond to revisions. During peak seasons - winter months tend to be busier - it can stretch to five days. That's just reality, not negligence. Here's something most people don't realize: the newspaper's deadline is often earlier than the funeral home's internal deadline. Local papers run obituaries on a tight schedule and charge by the line or by the word. Swartz knows these deadlines and factors them in, but if you're working with an out-of-area paper or a specialty publication, ask them to confirm the submission window before you finalize anything.
Common Problems and How to Avoid Them
The biggest issue I've seen repeatedly is incomplete survivor information. Someone dies and the family is still processing everything. They give the funeral home a partial list, the obituary goes to print, and then a week later they realize a sibling was missed. Some newspapers allow corrections for a fee, but not all do. Always try to get the full list before approving the draft. Another frequent problem is name ordering. When there are multiple marriages, blended families, or adopted children, getting the order right matters more than people expect. Swartz is careful about this, but they rely on you to clarify relationships. A quick note like "survived by wife Mary and former wife Linda" prevents confusion that would otherwise surface after publication. Cost is another factor worth understanding. Newspaper obituaries are not free. They typically run between fifty and two hundred dollars depending on length and placement. Swartz handles the submission, but you pay the publication directly or reimburse the funeral home. Their website posting is usually included in their basic services. If budget is tight, ask about condensing the text to meet lower word-count pricing tiers.
I also ran into an edge case with a veteran's obituary where the military honors required specific phrasing - branch of service, rank, dates of enlistment and discharge. The family didn't have the discharge paperwork on hand, and the obituary couldn't include the military section without it. The workaround was straightforward: I asked the family to contact the VA or the relevant military branch records office for a copy of the DD-214. Once we had that, Swartz updated the obituary before the second printing. It added two days to the process, but the final published version was correct, and that mattered to the family.
What Makes Swartz Different From Other Options
You can write your own obituary and submit it to newspapers directly. You can also use online obituary platforms that handle everything for you. Swartz sits somewhere in between - they offer the personal consultation of a local funeral home with the distribution reach of a professional service. Their strength is in the detail work. They catch inconsistencies, suggest phrases that carry more weight, and know which publications respond reliably versus which ones ghost you. That institutional knowledge isn't available from generic online services. But it does come with a tradeoff: you're working within their timeline and their editorial standards, not your own. One limitation worth noting is that Swartz, like most local funeral homes, operates within a specific geographic radius. If the deceased lived in a different county or state, they may refer you to a partner funeral home there. This isn't a refusal of service. It's logistical - they can't manage a service in another region effectively, and neither can you through them.
Final Practical Notes
Keep a copy of the approved obituary for your records. Print it, save a PDF, take a screenshot of the online version. These get lost or taken down faster than people expect, and families often need them for genealogy projects or legal purposes years later. Be honest about the life you're describing. Swartz has no interest in inflating accomplishments or omitting difficult truths. A straightforward obituary serves the family better than a polished one that doesn't match what people actually knew about the deceased. The staff will help you find the right tone, but they won't fabricate content. If you're dealing with this right now, take a breath. The process is manageable, and the people at Swartz have seen every variation of grief and family dynamics imaginable. They're not judging anything. Just show up with the information you have, ask questions when you're unsure, and trust that the final product will reflect the person accurately.
