Kathleen Dehmlow's Obituary

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Overview

Kathleen Dehmlow's Obituary refers to an obituary written by the children of deceased Redwood Falls, Minnesota woman Kathleen Dehmlow that went viral for the overwhelmingly negative description of the woman.

Background

On May 31st, Kathleen Dehmlow passed away at the age of 80 in Springfield, Minnesota.^[1] On June 4th, 2018, Twitter user @RandBallsStu^[2] first posted the obituary online, gaining over 47,000 retweets and 151,000 likes (shown below). The obituary stated that she had "abandoned" her children, and notably ended with "She will not be missed by Gina and Jay (her children) and the world is a better place without her."

ew ti In n ye Kathleen Dehmlow Kathleen Dehmlow (Schunk) was born on March 19, 1938 to Joseph and Gertrude Schunk of Wabasso. She married Dennis Dehmlow at St. Anne's in Wabasso in 1957 and had two children Gina and Jay. In 1962 she became pregnant by her husband's brother Lyle Dehmlow and moved to California. She abandoned her children, Gina and Jay who were then raised by her parents in Clements, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Schunk. She passed away on May 31, 2018 in Springfield an will now face judgement. She will not be missed by Gina and Jay, and they understand that this world is a better place without her.

Developments

In an interview with The Daily Mail,^[2] Dehmlow's children Jay Dehmalo and his older sister Gina explained the reasons behind the scathing obituary, saying that Dehmlow and their birth father Dennis Dehmlow were unfit parents, and other sources in the family said that they "liked to drink and party." This resulted in Jay and Gina being raised by their grandparents. Additionally, Kathleen had children with their father's brother in California, which they were unaware of until much later in life.

As for the obituary, it was initially rejected by one Minnesota newspaper for being too offensive, but was printed in the Redwood Falls Gazette. After it went viral, it was pulled from the Redwood Falls Gazette Archives and Legacy.com. According to a post by Twitter user @LinsayGuentzel, many of the staff of the Redwood Falls Gazette stated they were against publishing the obituary but were overruled. They said as much in a Facebook thread reacting to the obituary (shown below).

Aimee ElizabethRedwood Falls Gazette 13 hrs Facebook for Android You should be absolutely ashamed of yourself for allowing the obituary of Kathleen Dehmlow to be published. Everyone deserves respect and dignity in death Like Comment Share 8 Redwood Falls Gazette Most people at the Gazette, including the editor, protested running the obit, but were overruled. 11 mins Like Reply More

Online Reactions

Online, Twitter users were intrigued by the mystery of the circumstances that could lead to such an obituary. Twitter user @jalbus joked it could be an "award winning podcast," gaining over 1,200 likes (shown below, left). Twitter user @MaldonadoBBC said that the people of Dehmlow's hometown were furious at the obituary, as she was considered a "saint" by the community (shown below, right). Some of these were covered by The Daily Dot.^[3]