To place an obituary, please include the information from the obituary checklist below in an email to obits@pioneerpress.com. There is no option to place them through our website.
Feel free to contact our obituary desk at 651-228-5263 with any questions.
General Information:
Your full name,
Address (City, State, Zip Code),
Phone number,
And an alternate phone number (if any)
Obituary Specification:
Name of Deceased,
Obituary Text,
A photo in a JPEG or PDF file is preferable, TIF and other files are accepted, we will contact you if there are any issues with the photo.
Ad Run dates
There is a discount for running more than one day, but this must be scheduled on the first run date to apply.
If a photo is used, it must be used for both days for the discount to apply, contact us for more information.
Policies:
Verification of Death:
In order to publish obituaries a name and phone number of funeral home/cremation society is required. We must contact the funeral home/cremation society handling the arrangements during their business hours to verify the death. If the body of the deceased has been donated to the University of Minnesota Anatomy Bequest Program, or a similar program, their phone number is required for verification.
Please allow enough time to contact them especially during their limited weekend hours.
A death certificate is also acceptable for this purpose but only one of these two options are necessary.
Guestbook and Outside Websites:
We are not allowed to reference other media sources with a guestbook or an obituary placed elsewhere when placing an obituary in print and online. We may place a website for a funeral home or a family email for contact instead; contact us with any questions regarding this matter.
Obituary Process:
Once your submission is completed, we will fax or email a proof for review prior to publication in the newspaper. This proof includes price and days the notice is scheduled to appear.
Please review the proof carefully. We must be notified of errors or changes before the notice appears in the Pioneer Press based on each day’s deadlines.
After publication, we will not be responsible for errors that may occur after final proofing.
Online:
Payment Procedure:
Pre-payment is required for all obituary notices prior to publication by the deadline specified below in our deadline schedule. Please call 651-228-5263 with your payment information after you have received the proof and approved its contents.
Credit Card: Payment accepted by phone only due to PCI (Payment Card Industry) regulations
EFT: Check by phone. Please provide your routing number and account number.
Rates:
The minimum charge is $162 for the first 10 lines.
Every line after the first 10 is $12.20.
If the ad is under 10 lines it will be charged the minimum rate of $162.
On a second run date, the lines are $8.20 per line, starting w/ the first line.
For example: if first run date was 20 lines the cost would be $164.
Each photo published is $125 per day.
For example: 2 photos in the paper on 2 days would be 4 photo charges at $500.
Deadlines:
Please follow deadline times to ensure your obituary is published on the day requested.
Hours
Deadline (no exceptions)
Ad
Photos
MONDAY – FRIDAY
9:00AM – 5:00 PM
Next Day Publication
Must receive obituary content and payment same day by 4:30PM
Make changes by 5:00PM
Must receive photo(s) by 4:30PM
SATURDAYS
10:00AM – 2:00PM
Sunday Publication
Must receive obituary content and payment same day by 1:30PM
Make changes by 2:00PM
Must receive photo(s) by 1:30PM
SUNDAYS
12:00PM – 3:00PM
Monday Publication
Must receive obituary content, payment, and final changes same day by 2:30PM
Must receive photo(s) by 2:30PM
MEMORIAM (NON-OBITUARY) REQUEST
Unlike an obituary, Memoriam submissions are remembrances of a loved one who has passed. The rates for a memoriam differ from obituaries.
Gretchen Gasterland-Gustafsson, her two daughters and two international students who live with her have been busy sewing face masks in their St. Paul home, Sunday, March 22, 2020. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)
Sewers are being hailed as grassroots soldiers on the front line against the spread of coronavirus as Twin Cities health care and elder facilities plea for them to make and donate face masks.
“My sewing machine is my weapon against this enemy. Let’s stitch together,” read a recent meme on the American Sewing Guild, Minneapolis-St. Paul Chapter’s Facebook page this weekend.
“Our talents are needed in this crisis,” the guild posted. “Find a pattern that works for you, and begin to sew.”
The movement has quickly caught fire across the Twin Cities.
In response to the outpouring of help, Treadle Yard Goods on Grand Avenue in St. Paul offered free kits to make CDC-approved face masks Sunday and sold out of its 50 kits within moments. Many people in line to get the kits stayed to buy their own materials to make the masks.
Shoppers lined up down the block at Treadle Yard Goods on Grand Avenue in St. Pau in order to pick up fabric and elastic for making face masks, March 22, 2020. The store ran out of mask making kits by 1 pm but shoppers still lined up down the block in order to buy material. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)
Annie Robinson, a Registered Nurse, buys fabric for making face masks at Treadle Yard Goods in St. Paul, March 22, 2020. The store ran out of mask making kits by 1 pm but shoppers still lined up down the block in order to buy material. " We are ok but we anticipate that we will have shortages, just trying to be proactive," said Robinson, who works at Hennepin Health Care (formerly HCMC). (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)
Claire Milldrum bought fabric at Treadle Yard Goods in St. Paul, which was busy with people shopping for fabric and elastic to make face masks, March 22, 2020. " I have family that is immuno-compromised," said Milldrum, of Minneapolis. The store ran out of mask making kits by 1 pm but shoppers still lined up down the block in order to buy material. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)
Treadle Yard Goods in St. Paul was busy with people picking up material and elastic to make face masks, March 22, 2020. The store ran out of mask making kits by 1 pm but shoppers still lined up down the block in order to buy material. Laura Martell Kelly measures and cuts fabric for, from left, Yasemin Isaacs, 15, Jennie Tang and Ben Lanners, 8. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)
Arlene Schuweiler buys enough material for at least 25 face masks, at Treadle Yard Goods in St. Paul , March 22, 2020. The store ran out of mask making kits by 1 pm but shoppers still lined up down the block in order to buy material. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)
Arlene Schuweiler of St. Paul bought enough fabric to make 25 home made masks, at Treadle Yard Goods in St. Paul, March 22, 2020. The store ran out of mask making kits by 1 pm but shoppers still lined up down the block in order to buy material. The elastic was donated and was given out for free. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)
Gretchen Gasterland-Gustafsson, her two daughters and two international students who live with her have been busy sewing face masks in their St. Paul home, Sunday, March 22, 2020. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)
Gretchen Gasterland-Gustafsson, her two daughters and two international students who live with he, Kitty Li and Eugenia Wang, right, have been busy sewing face masks in their St. Paul home, Sunday, March 22, 2020. Li and Wang measure and cut elastic for the masks. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)
An estimated 30,000-35,000 masks were dropped off to the Minnesota Nurses Association on Saturday and Sunday.
FAMILY AFFAIR IN MOUNDS PARK
For Gretchen Gasterland-Gustafsson of Mounds Park, making masks is a family affair. She and her daughters, ages 16 and 22, began making the masks last week.
“We have a factory-style shop in the basement,” Gasterland-Gustafsson said.
She had plenty of material already on hand.
Gretchen Gasterland-Gustafsson, her two daughters and two international students who live with he, Kitty Li and Eugenia Wang, right, have been busy sewing face masks in their St. Paul home, Sunday, March 22, 2020. Li and Wang measure and cut elastic for the masks. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)
“I have been a spineless fabric hoarder for decades,” Gasterland-Gustafsson said. “I’m weak when it comes to fabric. I have lots of it.”
Gasterland-Gustafsson, who works in the liberal arts department at Minneapolis College of Art and Design, said she has been sewing her whole life. She makes costumes for dance companies and schools in her spare time.
Gretchen Gasterland-Gustafsson, her two daughters and two international students who live with her were busy sewing face masks in their St. Paul home Sunday. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)
The first day she made 26 masks and then she switched patterns to make masks that accommodate a filter made from hypoallergenic vacuum bags and has made 20 in that style, she said.
She is under no illusion that her masks are going to save lives.
“I don’t know that they will, but if they stop someone from touching their face, then that is a reminder,” she said. “It’s not going to substitute for production of N95 masks, but I have no control over that. This is all I can do.”
FACEBOOK GROUP TAKES OFF
For costume designer CJ Mandel, the army of sewers wanting to help took her by surprise.
A simple post started it all.
“I made a Facebook post and it went crazy,” she said, noting the post spawned a private Facebook group with nearly 300 members.
She’d initially reached out to Open Cities Health Center to see if they needed masks and then it spiraled.
Now she has a spreadsheet with organizations who are asking for the donated masks.
So far on her list of those asking for masks include a nursing home, an EMS department, a community mental health organization and smaller health clinics, like Open Cities, she said.
Organizations who might need fabric face masks donated can email her at fabricmasksmsp@gmail.com.
