Business
Here are some examples of his skillfully written obituaries
A Trove of Words to Remember From a Master Obituary Writer. The byline of Robert D. McFadden, who retired on Sunday, has been one of the most distinguished in the history of The Times.
Updated 2024-Oct-03 07:34
A grid of portraits of six people, with three columns and two rows.
Photo of Baby Marie Osborne from 1916 during the filming of Little Mary Sunshine. Credit: Pathé via Everett Collection.
Bob Turley a right handed pitcher who won the Cy Young Award passed away in Atlanta on Saturday. His powerful fastball helped the Yankees win the 1958 World Series against the Milwaukee Braves.
Click here to read the complete obituary. Tyson a tycoon in the food industry. Tyson was raised on a farm with noisy chickens and went on to become one of the wealthiest individuals globally a humble billionaire who wore khaki outfits similar to his employees featuring the words Don and the Tyson emblem embroidered on the shirt pockets.
He appeared to be a farmer at the feed co op: a stout man with a potbelly a round aged face a slightly bald head and a gray goatee.
Explore the complete obituary here. In the mid 1950s Bob Turley was depicted as Baby Marie Osborne a child star from silent films in a photo from 1917.In 1958 he led the Yankees to win the World Series. Pretending to be dazzled by the bright lights he started blinking uncontrollably appearing to have random spasms and tics.
ImageMr. McFadden foreground worked as a rewrite man at The Times by candlelight during the 1977 New York blackout.
But he had a second act in store as an obituary writer. For the last decade or more Bob chronicled hundreds of consequential lives some famous and some less so.
But even there he was singular because his mission was not to write about people after they died the usual sequence but while those subjects still lived.
He wrote their obituaries in advance each deeply researched thoroughly reported and fluidly written.
Then he’d file them away sometimes for years until they were finally needed when death came knocking.
He responded to interrogators with a hint of defiance aware of the upcoming beatings but hopeful that his Morse code message would be noticed by America.
Read more in the obituary here. Bob Turley a pitcher known for his fast fastball was lively even in his old age traveling across the country for various events and surgeries.
Rivers transformed from a self deprecating performer to a sharp tongued critic compared to comic genius Lenny Bruce.
Some labeled it as extremely cruel.
