Finding a specific notice in the obituaries Eau Claire leader section isn't always as simple as a quick Google search. You’d think it would be. But between paywalls, shifting digital archives, and the fact that the Leader-Telegram has changed hands after over a century of family ownership, things get messy. Honestly, it’s frustrating when you're just trying to find service times for a friend or piece together a family tree.
The Leader-Telegram has been the heartbeat of the Chippewa Valley since 1881. It survived the lumber era, the transition to digital, and a major sale to Adams Publishing Group back in 2017. Today, those notices are more than just names in a column; they're a digital record of everyone from the 94-year-old grandma in Chippewa Falls to the 56-year-old cat lover from Eau Claire.
How to Actually Find Recent Notices
If you are looking for someone who passed away this week, your best bet isn't always the main newspaper homepage. Most people don't realize the Leader-Telegram partners with Legacy.com. This is where the "real" searchable database lives.
Searching for obituaries Eau Claire leader on Legacy often yields better results because it includes the guestbooks and photos that the print version might trim for space. For example, as of mid-January 2026, you'll find names like Miriam G. Godfrey and Michael McLeod listed there.
But here is the kicker: local funeral homes often post the full text on their own sites before it ever hits the paper. If the newspaper search is failing you, check the websites for:
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- Hulke Family Funeral Home
- Lenmark-Gomsrud-Linn
- Stokes, Prock & Mundt
- Chippewa Valley Cremation Services
They usually have the "pending arrangements" posted hours or days before the official newspaper deadline.
The Cost Nobody Warns You About
Basically, it’s expensive to die in print.
Placing a notice in the obituaries Eau Claire leader section starts around $175. That’s just the base price. If you want to add a photo—which most families do—or if your loved one had a really long, adventurous life story, that bill can climb into the hundreds very fast.
Some families are opting for "death notices" instead. These are the short, three-line blurbs that just give the bare facts: name, age, date of death, and funeral home. It saves money, but you lose the "story" of the person. You lose the mention of their favorite fishing spot or the fact that they worked at the old tire plant for 40 years.
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Using the Archives for Genealogy
If you're doing the "family tree" thing, the modern website won't help you much with anyone who passed before the late 90s. For that, you’ve gotta go deeper.
The Leader-Telegram archives are a goldmine if you know where to look. GenealogyBank and Newspapers.com have digitized copies of the paper going back to the late 1800s. It’s wild to see the old language they used. Back in the day, they would mention "survived by a host of friends" or go into weirdly specific detail about the "malady" that took them.
If you’re a local, the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library in downtown Eau Claire is still the "holy grail." They have the microfilm. It's clunky, it’s old-school, and it makes your eyes hurt, but it’s the only way to find certain records that haven't been indexed by the big search engines yet.
Common Mistakes When Searching
Most people type the name and "Eau Claire" and give up when it doesn't pop up. Here is what's actually happening:
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- The Chippewa Falls overlap: People in the Valley move between Eau Claire, Altoona, and Chippewa Falls constantly. A notice might be listed under "Chippewa Falls" even if the person lived in Eau Claire for 50 years.
- Maiden names: This is the biggest hurdle for genealogists. The Leader-Telegram records from the mid-20th century often listed women as "Mrs. John Smith" rather than by their own first names.
- The "Legacy" gap: Sometimes there is a 24-48 hour delay between the funeral home sending the info and it appearing in the obituaries Eau Claire leader digital feed.
Actionable Steps for Finding or Placing a Notice
If you are tasked with handling this for a family member, don't do it alone. The funeral director is your best friend here. They have a direct portal to the Leader-Telegram ad desk and can often get better formatting than you’d get trying to use the self-service online tool.
- Verify the deadline: For the print edition, you usually need everything submitted by early afternoon the day before publication.
- Proofread like a hawk: Once it's in newsprint, that typo in the daughter-in-law's name is permanent.
- Check the "We Remember" pages: This is a newer feature the paper offers. It’s a more social-media-style memorial that allows for "virtual candles" and longer stories that don't fit in the physical column.
Ultimately, these records are the only physical proof of the lives lived in our corner of Wisconsin. Whether you're looking for a long-lost Great Uncle or just checking the time for a service at St. James, knowing where the data actually lives saves a lot of heartache.
Check the local funeral home sites first for speed, then hit the Legacy.com affiliate page for the official record, and if you're looking for history, head to the library microfilm or the paid digital archives. That is the most efficient way to navigate the system today.