An Obituary and the San Francisco Newspapers' News Judgment

The Sunday edition of the San Francisco Chronicle is a collaborative effort with its rival, the San Francisco Examiner. The Examiner runs news item obituaries on Sunday. The Chronicle does not. The Chronicle runs news item obituaries on the other six days of the week. It usually has about three or four, the number depending on the eminence of the recently departed. Both newspapers run paid obituaries.

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Mrs. Elizabeth Wood Palmer Pickle died on February 9, 1998. Her son and daughter arranged for the following paid obituary to run in the Sunday Examiner/Chronicle edition of Sunday, February 15th:

PALMER-PICKLE Elizabeth Wood - In Oakland, CA, February 9, 1998. Born May 12, 1910 in San Bernardino, CA. She received her AB from University of California at Los Angeles in 1932 and her JD from Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California at Berkeley, California in 1935. She was admitted to the California bar in 1935. Her law career started with the trust department at Bank of America in Los Angeles. She also worked in the legal department at MGM Studio and the Department of Justice. She became a Deputy Attorney General for the State of California in 1943 in San Francisco, Senior Assistant Attorney General in 1971 and Chief Assistant Attorney General in 1976. She retired from the Attorney General's office in 1977. Activities: Consultant to Attorney General of California and to Advisory Committee Judicial council, 1977-79; member State Bar of California, Association Public Welfare Attorneys (regional director 1970-75), American, San Francisco bar associations. National Women's Political Caucus, Queen's Bench, California Women Lawyers, Business and Professional Women (chapter president 1966-67; named Woman of Achievement. San Francisco chapter 1964). Sigma Kappa Alumnae (scholarship adviser 1950-56). Club: Montclair Women's (past president) (Oakland). Preceded in death by her first husband, Theodore Alvin Palmer and her second husband, Harry Elvin Pickle. Survived by daughter, Susan Elizabeth Palmer Brady; son, Theodore Andrew Palmer; daughter-in-law, Lynn Palmer; eight grandchildren; two great grandchildren. At her reguest no services held. In lieu of flowers, donations to Lion's Center for the Blind. 3534 Opal Street, Oakland, CA 94609.

The Examiner ran only one news item obituary that Sunday. It was not Mrs. Pickle's. On the following Monday, the Chronicle ran one news item obituary, that of Bob Hope's agent. And these newspaper people wonder why we sometimes question their news judgment.

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