When you're scrolling through Hulett-Winstead funeral home obituaries, you aren't just looking for a date or a time. You're usually looking for a person. Or a connection. It’s that heavy, quiet moment where you’re trying to figure out if the service is on Friday or Saturday because you need to request off work, or maybe you're just looking to see if there's a photo of Mrs. Belinda from the church choir.
Hattiesburg is a small town in a lot of ways. Even as it grows, the ties between families in Forrest and Lamar counties run deep.
People think an obituary is just a notice. It’s not. It’s the last bit of storytelling we get. And honestly, the way we find these stories has changed so much lately. You used to just wait for the Hattiesburg American to hit the driveway, but now it’s all about the digital refresh. If you’ve ever found yourself refreshing a page at 11:00 PM waiting for a notice to post, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
Why Hulett-Winstead Funeral Home Obituaries Are Different
Most people don't realize that Hulett-Winstead has been doing this since 1910. That's over a century of documenting the lives of South Mississippi residents. When Dr. J.E. Hulett started the "Hulett Undertaking Co." in downtown Hattiesburg, he probably didn't imagine a world where people would be looking up service times on a glass rectangle in their pockets.
But here we are.
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The physical building on Bay Street—that red brick landmark on the hill—is iconic, but the digital archive is where most of the "visiting" happens today. The way the staff handles these records matters because they aren’t just files; they are family legacies.
Finding a Specific Record
If you're hunting for a recent notice, like for Jack Horace Tuggle or Nona Lois Livingston Palazzo, the official website is usually the fastest route. But here’s a tip: don’t just search the name. Sometimes the system is picky. Try searching by just the last name and filtering by the month. It saves a lot of "No Results Found" headaches.
- Go to the official listings page.
- Use the "Find your loved one" search bar.
- Check both the Hattiesburg and Sumrall locations if you don't see them at first.
- Look for the "Tribute Wall" to leave a note.
The Sumrall and Purvis Connection
Hulett-Winstead isn't just a Hattiesburg thing. They have chapels in Sumrall and Purvis too. This is where a lot of people get tripped up. They’ll look for an obituary under "Hattiesburg" and realize the service is actually happening out in Sumrall.
Always check the header of the obituary. It’ll specify which chapel is handling the arrangements. For example, recent services for Richard "Ricky" Coulter showed how the Sumrall community shows up for its own. If you’re driving in from out of town, verify that address. There is nothing worse than showing up at Bay Street when everyone else is thirty minutes away at the Sumrall chapel.
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What to Do If You Can't Find an Obituary
It happens. You know someone passed away, but the Hulett-Winstead funeral home obituaries search comes up empty.
Usually, it’s a timing issue.
Families often wait a few days to finalize the wording. They want to make sure they didn’t leave out a cousin or get a date of birth wrong. Also, sometimes the "official" obituary is published on a third-party site like Legacy or the HubCitySPOKES before it hits the funeral home’s main site.
- Check social media. Local church groups in Hattiesburg often post funeral details before the formal obituary is live.
- Call the office. The staff at the Bay Street location (601-582-1571) are actually super helpful. If a service is pending, they can usually give you the "tentative" time so you can plan.
- Wait for the weekend. A lot of local families still prefer the Sunday print tradition, so the digital version might lag until the print layout is set.
The "Plant a Tree" Trend
You’ve probably noticed the "Plant a Tree" button on almost every listing now. People ask if that’s a gimmick. Kinda, but not really. It’s through a partnership (usually with groups like American Forests), and it’s become a massive alternative for people who don’t want to send flowers that will just wilt in a week. It’s weirdly comforting to think there’s a tree growing in a forest somewhere in honor of someone who loved the Mississippi outdoors.
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Navigating the Tribute Wall
One of the best things about modern obituaries is the Tribute Wall. It’s basically a digital guestbook.
Honestly, I think these are more important than the obituary itself sometimes. Seeing a story from a high school friend of Debra Romeo Dean or a memory of Barry Paul Haywood gives you a glimpse into a life that a standard 200-word notice can't capture.
When you write on there, keep it simple. You don't need to write a novel. Just "Thinking of you all" or a quick "I remember when..." means the world to a grieving family who is reading those messages at 3:00 AM when they can't sleep.
Practical Steps for Local Residents
If you are the one responsible for coordinating with Hulett-Winstead, there are a few things that make the process smoother. The "Where to Begin" section on their site is actually pretty decent, but here is the boots-on-the-ground reality:
- Bring a photo early. The digital obituary looks a lot better with a high-res photo. If you bring a physical copy to the Bay Street office, they can scan it for you.
- Think about the "In Lieu of Flowers" part. If the deceased had a favorite charity in Hattiesburg—maybe the ARC or a local animal shelter—have that info ready before the obituary goes live. Once it's posted, it's a pain to change it.
- Ask about the livestream. Since 2020, they’ve gotten much better at streaming services. If you have family in another state who can’t make the drive to South Mississippi, ask the director if the service will be linked on the obituary page.
Managing the end-of-life details is never easy. But having a reliable place to find Hulett-Winstead funeral home obituaries makes the logistics just a little bit lighter. Whether you're looking for a service time for Cynthia Moore Mallette or just trying to send a sympathy card to a neighbor, the digital archives are the modern-day town square for Hattiesburg.
If you need to find a specific service time right now, your best bet is to go directly to the official listing page rather than relying on a generic Google search, which can sometimes pull up outdated "cached" versions of the site. Check the date at the top of the page to ensure you're looking at the 2026 records and not an archive from three years ago.