Losing someone is heavy. It's just heavy. When you're sitting in a house in Ardmore or driving down Silas Creek Parkway, and you get that news, the world kinda stops spinning for a second. Then, the logistics kick in. You need to find the service times. You want to see the photos. You want to read about the life they lived. Honestly, finding obituaries in Winston-Salem NC shouldn't feel like a scavenger hunt, but with the way local media has changed lately, it sometimes does.
Gone are the days when everyone just grabbed the physical copy of the Winston-Salem Journal off the driveway. Now, information is scattered. It’s on legacy websites, funeral home pages, and social media.
The Paper of Record: The Winston-Salem Journal
The Winston-Salem Journal is still the primary spot for official notices. It's been around since the 1890s, so it’s got the history. Most families still choose to post here because it feels "official." But here is the thing: it’s expensive. To put a full obituary with a photo in the printed paper can cost hundreds, sometimes over a thousand dollars depending on the word count.
Because of that cost, you’ll notice a trend. Some families are opting for "death notices"—those tiny, three-line snippets that just give the name and the date of passing—while keeping the long, beautiful story of the person’s life on the funeral home’s website.
If you are looking for someone specific, the Journal partners with Legacy.com. This is basically a massive database. You can search by name, but a pro tip? Filter by the last 30 days. If you don't, you'll get every "John Smith" who lived in Forsyth County since 2001. It’s a mess if you aren't specific.
Where the Real Stories Live: Local Funeral Homes
If you can't find what you're looking for in the newspaper, go straight to the source. The funeral homes in Winston-Salem are usually much faster at updating their digital walls than the newspapers are.
Take Hayworth-Miller Funeral Homes, for example. They have multiple locations across the Triad—Silas Creek, Rural Hall, Kernersville. Their website is usually updated within hours of the arrangements being finalized. It’s often more personal there, too. You’ll find guest books where people from the neighborhood or old coworkers from R.J. Reynolds or Hanes actually leave comments.
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Then you have Salem Funeral & Cremation Services. They’ve been a staple in the community for a long time, particularly around the downtown and Old Salem areas. Their online obituaries often include video tributes or slideshows that you won't find on a standard news site.
Don't forget the historic houses. Clark S. Brown & Sons Funeral Home has served the African American community in Winston-Salem for generations. Their records are a vital part of the city's history. When you’re looking for obituaries in Winston-Salem NC that reflect the deep roots of the city's East Side or the Patterson Avenue corridor, their site is the place to be.
A Note on Small Local Chapel Sites
Sometimes, smaller or family-owned spots like Vogler & Sons or Cox-Needham (if you're looking a bit further north toward King) have their own setups. If a name isn't popping up on Google, try searching the funeral home name directly plus "obituaries." It works better than a broad search.
Why the Digital Shift Matters for Forsyth County
Winston-Salem is a "city of arts and innovation," right? That’s the slogan. We see that innovation even in how we handle death.
People are using Facebook groups now. If you’re a member of any "Growing up in Winston-Salem" or local neighborhood watch groups, you’ve probably seen it. Someone posts a photo of a well-known local teacher or a business owner who passed away. Often, these social media posts go viral locally before the official obituary is even typed up.
It’s faster. It’s raw. But be careful—it’s not always 100% accurate on the details of the service. Always verify with the funeral home before you show up at a church at 2:00 PM on a Tuesday.
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Searching for Older Records
Maybe you aren't looking for someone who passed away last week. Maybe you're doing genealogy. Winston-Salem is a goldmine for this because of our Moravian history and the meticulous record-keeping of the local archives.
- The Forsyth County Public Library: The North Carolina Room at the Central Library on West Fifth Street is incredible. They have microfilm. Yeah, the old-school stuff. If you are looking for an obituary from the 1950s, this is your best bet.
- DigitalNC: This is a brilliant resource run through UNC-Chapel Hill. They have digitized thousands of pages of old North Carolina newspapers, including some of the smaller, defunct Winston-Salem publications.
- Find A Grave: It sounds morbid, but it’s a volunteer-driven powerhouse. People literally go out to Salem Cemetery or Forsyth Memorial Park, take photos of headstones, and link them to obituary text.
The Cost of Saying Goodbye in Print
It’s worth mentioning the business side of obituaries in Winston-Salem NC.
The price of a printed obituary in the Journal is based on "lines." A standard obituary can easily run 40 to 60 lines. When you add a photo, the price jumps. Many families now choose to write a "short form" for the paper—just the essentials—and then link to a "long form" on a free site like Tributes.com or the funeral home’s own page.
If you're writing one, keep it concise for the paper. Mention the surviving spouse, children, and the service time. Save the stories about their love for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons or their prize-winning roses for the online version where you have infinite space.
How to Verify Information
Scams are a real thing. It’s sad, but it happens. There are "obituary pirate" websites that scrape data from legitimate funeral homes and repost it with incorrect information just to get ad clicks.
How do you spot them?
Look at the URL. If it’s something weird like "https://www.google.com/search?q=world-news-obits-2026.com," close the tab.
Stick to:
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- The official funeral home website (e.g., hayworth-miller.com).
- The newspaper's official domain (journalnow.com).
- Direct links from the family’s verified social media.
If you see conflicting times for a service at a place like Wait Chapel or Centenary United Methodist, call the church office. They’ll have the master calendar.
Practical Steps for Finding or Placing an Obituary
If you need to find an obituary right now, start with a search for the person's full name + "Winston-Salem obituary" + the current year. If that fails, check the "Obituaries" tab on JournalNow.com.
For those having to write one for a loved one in Forsyth County, here is a quick checklist of what to include:
- Full Name and Nicknames: (Especially if they were known by a middle name, which is a big Southern thing).
- Key Ties to the Area: Did they work at Bowman Gray? Did they graduate from Reynolds High School?
- Service Details: Be specific about the location. Winston-Salem has a lot of churches with similar names.
- Donation Preferences: Instead of flowers, many local families suggest donations to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC or Hospice (Trellis Supportive Care).
Trellis Supportive Care, by the way, is a massive resource here. They've been around since 1979 as the state's first hospice. Often, if a person was under their care, their staff can help the family navigate the process of getting the obituary sent to the right local outlets.
What to do if you can't find a record
Sometimes, people pass away and an obituary is never published. It’s a personal choice or sometimes a financial one. If you’re looking for someone and nothing is showing up online, your next step is the Forsyth County Register of Deeds.
They handle death certificates. While a death certificate isn't a narrative obituary with all the life details, it is a legal record of the passing. You can request these records at the Forsyth County Government Center on North Chestnut Street. It’s a formal process, and there’s a small fee, but it’s the final word on the facts.
Searching for obituaries in Winston-Salem NC is really about connecting the dots between the old-school print traditions and the new digital reality. Whether you’re checking the Journal over a cup of coffee at Krankies or scrolling through a funeral home's site on your phone, the information is out there. You just have to know which corner of the internet it’s hiding in.
Start your search at the funeral home level first—it's usually the most direct path to the truth. If that's a dead end, move to the Journal's digital archives. For anything older than a decade, the public library's North Carolina Room remains the gold standard for local history.