Writing Obituaries for the Sharon Herald Isn't Hard, But Doing It Well Saves People Time
The Sharon Herald has been running local obituaries for decades, and the process is straightforward if you know what editors actually look for. Most families end up wasting hours wrestling with submission guidelines that nobody wrote down clearly. Here's how it works in practice. You start by gathering the basics: full legal name, age, city of residence, date of death, and a brief biographical sketch. The Herald charges by the line or by word count depending on whether it's a standard notice or a full-length obituary. Standard notices run about two hundred dollars. Longer ones can push past six hundred depending on photo inclusion and length. Pricing shifts occasionally, so always verify current rates on their website before drafting. I spent years helping families navigate this after my own mother passed. The worst part wasn't the grief. It was figuring out who to call, what format they wanted, and whether the funeral home was actually submitting anything on their behalf. Some funeral directors handle obituary placement as part of their package. Others charge extra and still do a mediocre job. I learned to take control of the draft myself.
Here's the workflow I use now when a family reaches out: First, get the death certificate information. Name spelling matters. I once had a family submit "Katherine" when the legal name was "Catherine." The paper wouldn't print it wrong, and they had to resubmit. That delay cost them an extra day of visibility during a time when everyone was already overwhelmed. Verify every detail against the death certificate or the funeral director's paperwork. Second, draft the biography section. Keep it tight. Most editors prefer three to five paragraphs. Lead with the key facts: who died, when, where they lived, and who survives them. Then add the meaningful details — career, military service, hobbies, community involvement. The Herald readers care about the local connections. Mentioning a church, a volunteer organization, or a long-time employer matters more than listing every job the person ever held.
Third, collect the photos. The Herald accepts digital images. Send a high-resolution JPEG, at least eight hundred pixels wide. Compressed phone camera shots often get rejected because they pixelate at print size. I always ask families to send the original file from the camera or cloud storage, not a screenshot taken from a text message. Fourth, submit through the proper channel. The Sharon Herald accepts online submissions through their classifieds portal, email, or fax. Online is fastest and gives you a confirmation number. I've seen families email drafts to generic addresses and never get a response. Use the official submission form and save the confirmation. One thing beginners miss: the deadline. Print deadlines are typically early afternoon on weekdays. If you miss that window, your obituary runs the next available edition. During holiday weeks or staffing shortages, that gap can stretch to three or four days. Plan ahead. Don't wait until the funeral is scheduled to start the draft.
Get the Full Details
Another counter-intuitive detail most people don't know: you can request a digital-only version alongside the print run. The Herald posts obituaries online, and those pages stay accessible indefinitely. That means the online version can include links to memorial donations, service details, and even extended family listings that wouldn't fit in the printed space. Ask for this when you submit. It costs the same in most cases and adds real value for people who find the notice online rather than through the paper. There are limits to what obituaries can do, though. They don't resolve estate issues. They don't replace legal notices, which are a separate publication requirement handled through the county clerk's office. If a family needs a death notice for probate purposes, an obituary in the Herald won't satisfy that. It serves a different function entirely — community notification, not legal compliance. Sometimes the hardest part is deciding what to leave out. Families want to include everything. The editor will cut it down regardless. I've seen drafts run eight hundred words get trimmed to three hundred by the newsroom. Write with the assumption that cuts will happen. Keep the essential information in the first paragraph so nothing important gets trimmed away.
If you're helping a family through this, here's a practical tip that saves hours: create a simple information template you can reuse. Name, age, date of death, survivors, service details, donation preferences. Fill it in once, then draft the full obituary from that skeleton. It keeps you organized when multiple family members are sending you conflicting details over text messages. The obituary process varies slightly between publications. The Sharon Herald has its own preferences compared to neighboring papers. Some accept submissions only through funeral directors. Some require prepayment before publishing. Check the current guidelines on their website before investing time in a draft that might need to be rewritten for another outlet. People underestimate how much a well-written obituary helps the community process a loss. It gives neighbors a chance to know who died, where the service is, and how to reach the family. It creates a record that outlasts the newspaper clipping tucked into a memory box. The practical work of drafting and submitting one is manageable if you approach it methodically rather than emotionally in the moment. Wait a day if you can. Draft it, set it aside, then review it again before sending. You'll catch errors and omissions that matter more than you expect.
