On their own, neither of Leroy Black’s two obituaries is anything out of the ordinary.
But placed side by side, as they were in New Jersey’s Press of Atlantic City, they’ve been raising some eyebrows.
Black, 55, who lived in Egg Harbor Township, died of cancer on Aug. 2. The top obituary published in the paper on Aug. 5 states that he “is survived by his loving wife, Bearetta Harrison Black.” Another obituary, placed directly below the first, makes no mention of the wife, but notes that Black is survived by “his long-tome [sic] girlfriend, Princess Hall.”
“The wife wanted it that way,” Joe Greenidge of Greenidge Funeral Homes told The Huffington Post when asked why the so-called dueling obituaries were run side by side. Greenidge said he didn’t know whether there was any animosity between the wife and girlfriend or whether they were both fine with the situation.
An unidentified man who answered the phone at the funeral home told the Philly Voice that both women knew the double-obit situation was happening, and that they were printed that way because “the wife wanted it one way, and the girlfriend wanted it another way.”
