Writing an Obituary in Odessa? You Don't Have to Do It Alone.

Most families sit down to write an obituary and freeze.

You’re sitting at the kitchen table, maybe with a cup of coffee gone cold, trying to sum up a life in a few paragraphs. It feels impossible—especially in a town like Odessa, where everyone knows everyone, and the person you loved was so much more than a list of dates. You might think of their Sunday mornings at the Basin Speedway or their smile at the Parker County Cowboy Church, and the words just won’t come. That’s okay. You don’t have to find them alone.

I remember the first time a family asked me if we could run a voice recording of their mother reading a Bible verse during the slideshow, and I said yes without thinking twice. In Odessa, where summer heat cracks the ground and winter wind cuts through your coat, we see about fourteen funeral homes spread across 122,707 souls—each one trying to hold steady in a place where oil booms and busts like a porch swing chain. Some folks here want a machine to stitch together old home videos and recite the eulogy from a chat log, and that’s fine; others want the preacher’s hand on their shoulder and the sound of gravel under boots. Neither one makes the dirt any softer.

Serving families across Meteor Crater, Permian Basin, Odessa Marriott Hotel & Conference Center and beyond

Odessa Funeral Directors: Give Every Family a Lasting Tribute

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