Shirley Temple Obituary

Megan Traub

ENG 225

February 11, 2014

I chose to read and analyze Shirley Temples obituary. Many people, even people of younger generations, know of Shirley Temple. The obituary is relatively recent stating that she has passed in 2014. The first paragraph states the facts about her death, including when and where. The obituary then goes on to talk about all of her achievements as an actress. The obituary includes that she was a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and wife. It then goes into great detail about her achievements. The obituary makes sure to key in on all of the top box offices she hit, fame as a child star, and how she even beat many older stars. They also speak of her successful films, and her ranking of number 18 out of 25 actresses in 1999 as a young child. Shirley’s obituary goes into detail how young children admired her and even mothers would dress their children like Shirley. It talks about how unlike other young stars, her mother worked to keep her away from the negatives of fame. It then continues into her popularity among many people and how during this time she was was loved and adored by America.

The obituary continues to her later life and into her adulthood. They speak about her retirement from acting and entry in politics, marriage and motherhood. It then continues with quotes from a few of her directors stating how hardworking, inspiring, and dedicated Shirley was. It talks about the work she did in politics and her main focus of human rights. The end of the obituary then talks about her children, details about her marriage and divorce to John Agar, then remarriage to “Black”. The obituary ends with her successful surgery with breast cancer where they include a quote from her stating the urge for other women to get checked.

            The format of the obituary is much different than one of a more common person whom is not open to fame. It goes into very depth details about her life and countless achievements. In most obituaries they do not use this much detail. Another characteristic is that it did not go in chronological order, instead it follows the inverted pyramid stating what they believed to be the most important facts following with facts that are less important and providing smaller details. One thing it lacked was the names of survivors and details of the funeral. I understand that this information is usually not given when someone is famous. It is just an observation I made noticing the difference between an actresses obituary vs. a common person.

            I was not surprised by the layout and context of this obituary. I knew it would contain a lot of information because of her fame. It focused on all positive aspects of her life, which is very important when writing an obituary. They did a great job of issuing her life achievements and impact she had on many.