
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, November 16, 1995                   TAG: 9511160055
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HENRY COUNTY MAN ARISES TO OWN OBITUARY

THE NEWS OF HIS DEATH was greatly exaggerated, and Charlie Tomlinson was taking it all in stride.

Charlie Tomlinson made an appearance on Henry County's Cable 6 Wednesday night - a live appearance.

The television interview came at the end of a strange day for the owner of Tomlinson Funeral Home in Ridgeway.

It might be an understatement to say that he awoke Wednesday to discover that he was, uh, feeling poorly.

There it was on the obituary page of The Roanoke Times: "Tomlinson, Charles R., 60, of Bassett, died Monday, November 13, 1995. Funeral 11 a.m. Thursday, Tomlinson Funeral Home."

The funeral home had faxed a short obituary of a 60-year-old Bassett man to the newspaper's classified advertising department Tuesday evening and Tomlinson's name - which is included on his funeral home's letterhead - was mistakenly typed in by a newspaper employee.

``When I got up and saw my name, I was a little bothered by it at first,'' Tomlinson said. ``I'm 60 years old, too. It hit me bang, bang, bang. But whoever made the error couldn't help it. We all make mistakes.''

Tomlinson joked that his competitors have been trying to put him out of business, and the thought popped into his head Wednesday that ``those rascals have done went and put my obituary in the paper!''

At Tomlinson Funeral Home, the phone rang all day.

Curtis Simmons, the funeral home's manager, said more than 200 people called to express their condolences.

``We understand this type of thing,'' said Simmons, no stranger to the grieving process.

Said Tomlinson about the outpouring in the community: ``That's the joy of the whole thing. It's exciting to know that so many people care.''

Kathy Gravely, classified telemarketing supervisor at The Roanoke Times, said Tomlinson is ``one in a million to find humor in this.''

The newspaper sent him an apology and a fruit basket Wednesday afternoon.

The card attached to the gift read: ``Glad you're still with us and that you can find humor with reports of your premature death.''

``Premature - I like that,'' said Tomlinson, who was taking the fruit basket on the air for his Cable 6 interview - in which he planned to prove that he's still very much alive.

``It's been a day,'' he said.

by CNB