Obituary Policies and Options

(940) 763-7504 phone
(940) 720-3444 fax
obits(at)timesrecordnews.com


BASIC STANDARDS AND POLICIES

We require that before an obituary can be printed in the Times Record News, it must be presented by a funeral home or the appropriate authority must verify the death. If a family member wishes to interact directly with the paper instead of going through a funeral home, they must present a telephone number through which the obituary clerk can verify the death of the individual. This is a precautionary measure taken by the Times Record News to ensure no falsified information is printed.

The obituary must be received by the obituary desk before 5:45 p.m. in order to run in the next edition of the paper, either via email or in-person to our front desk. Any information received after 5:45 p.m. will not be considered until the following day. If the family has access to a fax machine and would rather fax the information, it must be received before 4 p.m. This ensures that the obituary clerks will be able to successfully meet their daily deadline.

We require the family member leave their name and telephone number so we have a contact if any problems or questions were to arise. We also require a billing address so the appropriate party will be billed.

OPTION 1: Free Death Notice

The free death notice includes the information only:

The opening paragraph lists the deceased's name, age, city of residence, date of death (day and date) and city of death.

The second paragraph includes any graveside, funeral or memorial services, wake or rosary services, the date and time of the service, the officiant(s) and their title(s), the place of burial and the funeral home in charge of arrangements.

The third paragraph includes the deceased's occupation and/or military service; their job title and place of employment is acceptable.

The fourth paragraph lists the surviving family members, which in our free notice includes immediate family: spouse, children, parents, siblings, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc.; and the number of surviving grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc. We do include stepchildren and step and half siblings, though we do not include any in-laws, fiancées, or family members who preceded the deceased in death.

Finally, if desired we can include a visitation time, date and location, as well as any suggested memorials.

OPTION 2: Paid Obituary

The paid obituary consists of any information a family would like to include. The cost of the paid obituary varies with the amount of words. The prices are as follows:

(Daily charge/Sunday charge)
0 to 149 words - $65.00/$70.00

150 to 249 words - $95.00/$100.00

250 to 399 words - $145.00/$150.00

400 to 600 words - $200.00/$205.00

More than 600 words - $200.00/$205.00 plus 35 cents per word

Shipped Papers - $15.00

If an obituary is run for multiple days, the charges will include full price for the first day and half price for any additional days.

OPTION 3: Paid Obituary with Picture

If a family chooses to include a picture, the obituary automatically becomes paid and the family is charged by the word as indicated above, plus $25 for single photo and $35 for double photo. We do not run a free obituary with a picture.

A picture can be emailed to the paper at obits(at)timesrecordnews.com. It should be in either a .jpeg or .bmp format. If a photo is walked in to our front desk, the family should include a self-addressed, stamped envelope so the photo can be returned.

Times Record News reserves the right to amend outdated information, such as dates of services, when they have occurred prior to publication date.

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