Online Guest Books for both attracted thousands of remembrances, putting them on Legacy.com’s Top 25 Most-Eulogized People Online for 2007
EVANSTON, Ill., Dec. 27 /PRNewswire/ — Former Playboy playmate and E! reality TV star Anna Nicole Smith and televangelist and Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell had little in common in life, but they share a distinction in death.
Ditto for Washington Redskins football player Sean Taylor and former first lady Lady Bird Johnson.
Smith, Falwell, Taylor and Johnson, who all died in 2007, attracted so many individual remembrances and condolences in their online Guest Books on memorialization Web site Legacy.com (http://www.legacy.com/) that they made the site’s list "2007′s Top 25 Most-Eulogized People Online."
The victims of the April 16, 2007, shootings at Virginia Polytechnic Institute top the 2007 list; almost 43,000 condolences and remembrances have been offered (through Dec. 11) in the Legacy.com Guest Book for the 28 students and four faculty members gunned down by a troubled student. Second on the list is John Winter, a popular Orlando TV station meteorologist, who committed suicide.
"One of the most striking aspects of the lists is that they blend the slightly gossipy appeal of guest books for celebrities with the very personal, almost religious and familial aspect of remembering more ordinary people," said Professor Toby Miller, chair of media and cultural studies at the University of California, Riverside, who reviewed the lists at the request of Legacy.com. "The Guest Books commemorate the famous, but also make renowned the suffering of those who aren’t famous."
Labeled the "granddaddy" of online obituary and memorialization sites by MarketWatch, Legacy.com hosts obituaries and memorials for more than 60 percent of the people who die in the United States and attracts more than 10 million unique visitors each month.
The Web site has largely been responsible for popularizing the online Guest Book, taking it from a novelty a few years ago to a widely accepted way to remember loved ones and offer condolences to families. The site today fields more than 23,000 Guest Book entries daily — or one every 2.5 seconds — for ordinary people remembered by families and friends, celebrities, pro sports stars and individuals thrust into the limelight by the circumstances of their deaths.
All of the more than 20 million Guest Book entries on Legacy.com have been reviewed for appropriate content before being posted online, using a process that combines artificial intelligence and editorial review.
Below are Legacy.com’s 2007 Top 25 Most Eulogized People Online and All-Time Top 25 Most Eulogized People Online, based on number of entries through Dec. 11, 2007. All of these Guest Books are open and continue to accept entries from anyone who would like to remember the individuals. For links to each of these Guest Books, please visit http://www.aboutlegacy.com/.
Legacy.com’s 2007 Top 25 Most-Eulogized People Online
1. Virginia Tech shooting victims
2. Tampa, Fla., TV meteorologist John Winter
3. Presiding Bishop of the Church of God in Christ G.E. Patterson
4. Yolanda King, oldest child of the Rev. Martin Luther King and Coretta
Scott King
5. Washington Redskins football player Sean Taylor
6. Model, centerfold and reality TV show star Anna Nicole Smith
7. Kansas City kidnap-and-murder victim Kelsey Smith
8. Denver Broncos football player Darrent Williams
9. Canton, Ohio, murdered mother-to-be Jessie Davis
10. NASCAR racer Benny Parsons
11. World Wrestling Entertainment star Chris Benoit
12. Retired Grambling University football coach Eddie Robinson
13. British comedian Bernard Manning
14. Donda West, mother of hip-hop star Kanye West
15. Televangelist and Moral Majority founder the Rev. Jerry Falwell
16. Jeffrey Alarie of Harrisburg, Pa., a 15-year-old whose family has
written in his Guest Book every day since his death
17. Jose Somohano, a Miami police officer killed in the line of duty
18. Racehorse Barbaro
19. Former first lady "Lady Bird" Johnson
20. NASCAR driver and team owner Bobby Hamilton
21. Minneapolis bridge collapse victims
22. Chris Reyka, a Broward County, Fla., sheriff’s deputy killed in the
line of duty
23. Tammy Faye Messner, televangelist and ex-wife of the Rev. Jim Bakker
24. Boston lead singer Brad Delp
25. Political columnist Molly Ivins
Legacy.com’s All-Time Top 25 Most-Eulogized People Online
1. Civil rights leader Rosa Parks
2. Virginia Tech shooting victims
3. 9/11 terrorist attack victims ("National Book of Remembrance")
4. Coretta Scott King, civil rights leader and widow of the Rev. Martin
Luther King
5. R&B singer Gerald Levert
6. R&B singer Luther Vandross
7. Tampa, Fla., TV meteorologist John Winter
8. Animal Planet TV star and wildlife conservationist "Crocodile Hunter"
Steve Irwin
9. G.E. Patterson, presiding Bishop of the Church of God in Christ
10. President Ronald Reagan
11. Heavy metal guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott
12. Anastasia DeSousa, victim of a Montreal college shooting
13. World Wrestling Entertainment star Eduardo Guerrero
14. Nicholas Blass, a 13-year-old with a medical condition who died after
a strenuous gym class workout and whose family has signed his Guest
Book every day since his 2002 death
15. Pat Tillman, Arizona Cardinals football player turned Army Ranger
16. Baseball Hall of Fame outfielder Kirby Puckett
17. Pope John Paul II
18. "Godfather of Soul" James Brown
19. Lori Hacking, Salt Lake City young woman killed by her husband
20. Terri Schiavo, brain-damaged young woman who became the center of the
country’s right to die debate
21. Victims of Hurricane Katrina
22. Paul Wellstone, U.S. Senator from Minnesota killed with his wife and
daughter in small plane crash while campaigning
23. Yolanda King, oldest child of the Rev. Martin Luther King and Coretta
Scott King
24. Miners of Sago, W.V.
25. Washington Redskins football player Sean Taylor
Described by MarketWatch as the "granddaddy" of online memorial companies, http://www.legacy.com/ provides online memorials and obituaries in partnership with more than 500 newspapers in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. It is visited by more than 10 million users each month and features obituaries and Guest Books for more than 60 percent of the people who die in the United States. Legacy.com is headquartered in the Chicago suburb of Evanston. Learn more about Legacy.com by visiting http://www.aboutlegacy.com/.
Source: Legacy.com
CONTACT: Rebecca Theim of Legacy.com, +1-312-590-0195,
rebecca@AboutLegacy.com
Web site: http://www.legacy.com/
http://www.aboutlegacy.com/
