The presentation of the deceased in Upper East Tennessee, 1900-1975

The presentation of the deceased was studied, over time, from samples of the obituaries and funeral notices printed in the Johnson City, Tennessee Press-Chronicle and its predecessors: the Johnson City Chronicle and Staff-News from 1925 and the Johnson City Comet from 1900.

Newspaper death notices were examined for separate components; sixty-five items accounted for the data. A data sheet was developed for the transfer of information from individual obituaries and funeral notices. These data sheets were coded for statistical manipulation and subsequent analysis.

The longitudinal tracing of death notice presentation of the deceased showed several trends in upper East Tennessee. (1) Deaths due to illness and disease were increasingly reported, with accidental deaths less frequently mentioned. (2) A majority of the deceased died at home through 1950. The 1975 sample showed that death had moved to institutions, chiefly community hospitals. (3) A majority of the obituaries reported the use of funeral establishments by 1950; the entire sample reported this in the 1975 sample. (4) The home was the place of the funeral in 1900 and 1925. In 1950 the church building was the typical location, but by 1975 it was the funeral chapel. (5) The place of burial changed more slowly from the family burying ground to the community or commercial cemetery. (6) The 1975 sample has illustrated that the presentation of the deceased is a completely managed, packaged presentation in the control of the "professional team." The transition from the home and family centered management of death to the professional virtually has been completed.

Several contributions to sociological knowledge were evident. First, these kinds of data allowed the sketching of the professionalization of the preparation and disposition of the dead in this region. Secondly, widespread changes in community rituals and customs were outlined as the orientation changed to the "limited community" from the "total." A further contribution was made in the use of newspaper death notices as the primary data source for this investigation. This methodological approach demonstrated the value of obituary data to social and ethnographic research.