Jan 4th, 2008 · Ann Wroe dreams of death and writes of life. The obituary editor for The Economist magazine says she likes to "get to the point" of a person's life story. Hunter S. Thompson's obit led with guns. Anna Nicole Smith's prominently spoke of Breasts, with a capital B.
Aug 29th, 2007 · Ann Wroe, obituaries editor for The Economist, discusses the challenge of writing obituaries for people who don't leave behind nice legacies. Last week, Wroe penned the obit for the so-called "Queen of Mean," billionaire real estate heiress Leona Helmsley.
Jun 17th, 2007 · Host Liane Hansen speaks with Carolyn Gilbert, a.k.a., 'The Obit Lady.' Gilbert founded the International Association of Obituarists.
Aug 26th, 2005 · An active senior citizen at Leisure World, a city-sized retirement community in Orange County, Calif., has volunteered to help his fellow residents write their own obituaries. Rob Schmitz of member station KPCC reports that it's a difficult, touchy and often humorous exercise.
Aug 25th, 2004 · NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates reports on the death of psychiatrist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, author of On Death and Dying and a pioneer of the modern hospice movement. She revolutionized the "language" of death and named the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Kubler-Ross died Tuesday at the age of 78.
Jul 2nd, 1999 · We remember Jack Mullin, the California man who brought two German tape recorders back from the Second World War and introduced the technology to America. Mullin was an member of the US Army Signal Corps, and stumbled upon reels of magnetic quarter-inch tape and machines in a town near Frankfurt. He came back and perfected the machines. On Novermber 16, 1946, he demonstrated how they worked to a meeting of audio engineers in his home state of California. Soon Bing Crosby started using them to pre-tape his radio show for ABC. Crosby also pioneered the efforts to make tape recorders and recording tape in this country. Mullin worked for Crosby and later for Ampex. Mullin died last week at his California home at age 84.