I am searching for my mother's obituary with no luck. Her name was Vickie Richardson Moye Arthur. Help?

Question

She was married several times and I'm unsure of how her name was worded in the obituary but no matter how I change it around I can't find anything on her.

Answer 1

The funeral home who handled her final arrangements is the group that would have placed her obituary. They're required by law to keep a copy of it. If you contact them, they should happily send you a copy along with the publication information.

Answer 2

Hi Val,

I did a little searching for you and found this Social Security Death record for a Vickie M. Arthur, born 10 Dec 1950; died 22 July 1999. Her social security number was issued in Ohio. It did not list a last residence.

I then searched the Obituary Daily Times at the Rootsweb website and found this

ARTHUR, Vickie M (BANKES); 48; Portsmouth VA; Hampton D-P; 1999-7-23



Hampton D-P–is for the Hampton Daily Press in Hampton, VA

Note that the death date and obituary dates match. Also note that the name Bankes could this be her maiden name.

I was unsuccessful in locating her obituary at the Hampton Daily Press website which is http://www.dailypress.com/  probably because it was in 1999. You may want to contact them to see if you can request a copy of her obituary since you have the publishing date (July 23, 1999).

Hope this helps, Jill

Answer 3

We need a bit more information...what town, state? Date?

Answer 4

Here it is:

Vickie M. Arthur, 48, of the 3900 block of South Road, died July 22, 1999, in Portsmouth. She was a native of Zanesville, Ohio, and had been employed with QVC in Suffolk as a traffic controller.

She is survived by her husband, Steve M. Arthur; one sister, Cindy L. Freriks of Granville, Ohio; three brothers, Rick E. Bankes of Crooksville, Ohio, Robert L. Bankes Jr. of Chesapeake and Randy A. Bankes of Zanesville, Ohio; and three nieces and two nephews.

She was predeceased by her mother, Louise L. Bankes.

A funeral service will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, July 24, at Snellings Funeral Home, Churchland Chapel, with Father Timothy A. Drake officiating. Burial will be private. The family will be at the funeral home on Friday from 6 to 9 p.m.

Daily Press (Newport News, VA)

Date: July 23, 1999

Edition: Final

Page: C7

Record Number: 9907230208

Answer 5

Some people don't have obituaries, for a number of reasons.

Most obits are not on-line. Some newspapers keep them on-line for 7 days, some 30, some a year, some forever. There are obituary central sites. Ancestry has a collection of them.

If you give us the death date and town, county and state, we'll take a stab. Where you already looked would help too.

You may have to go to the public library in the town she died in (or the town she lived most of her life in, if she lived in "Smallville" for 45 years but spent the last 3 months in "Metropolis" in a rest home) and look through the newspapers on microfilm.