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:

All obituaries appear on TwinCities.com with a permanent online guestbook presence. If you wish to have the online presence removed, you can contact us to remove the guestbook online. Changes to an online obituary can be handled through the obituary desk. Call us with further questions.

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.

Cash: Accepted at our FRONT COUNTER Monday – Friday from 8:00AM – 3:30PM

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.

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.

Please call or email us for more memoriam information

Please call 651-228-5280 for more information.

HOURS: Monday – Friday 8:00AM – 5:00PM (CLOSED WEEKENDS and HOLIDAYS)

Please submit your memoriam ad to memoriams@pioneerpress.com or call 651-228-5280.

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – After years of living on Russell Avenue in north Minneapolis, Bernadette Anderson will soon have the street in front of her old house as a tribute to the woman who once called this neighborhood home.

Tireless advocate

“It’s truly a blessing. We loved our mother, and we know many in the community loved her as well,” said Anderson’s daughter, Sylvia Amos.

First at the Ruth Hawkins Center at North Commons Park, and later at the Minneapolis Urban League’s Street Academy, Anderson was a tireless advocate for children.

She even had her own teen club at the Uptown YWCA called Bernadette’s Place.

Family members say Anderson was not only a mother to her own six children, she was considered a mother to the entire community.

“She and her sisters went into foster care when they were young because their parents got tuberculosis. So that was what caused them to take in other kids all the time. I think that’s why their house was always open to folks,” said Amos.

Sound inspiration

One of the people Anderson took in and helped raise was a friend of her youngest son, Andre, named Prince Rogers Nelson.

He and Andre, as well as other musicians from the Northside like Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis and Alexander O’Neal all practiced in Anderson’s basement, causing many to think of her as the Mother of the Minneapolis Sound.

“If you ever came over to our house at that point, there was always music going on,” said Anderson’s son Andre Cymone.

Anderson passed away in 2003, but next week, the city will rename the 1200 block of Russell Avenue North “Bernadette Anderson Way” in her honor, so her contributions to her community will never be forgotten.

“It’s a way to remember her and leave a legacy, so that people will remember what impact she had on the community, what impact she had on youth in the community,” said Amos.

Bernadette Anderson Way will be officially unveiled on Friday, Sept. 13. After the remaining ceremony, there will be a block party with music provided by Andre Cymone and some of the other musicians she helped back in the day.