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:
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.
Hours
Deadline (no exceptions)
Ad
Photos
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.
For the past 50 years, St. Paul’s Park Square Theatre has been a hub for Twin Cities performers to perfect their craft. After overcoming a period of financial hardships and near closure, Park Square is moving towards a brighter future.
After an abrupt cancellation of all but one show in its 2023 season, Park Square Theatre has returned to a four-show season of unique American contemporary plays and performances. This season is led in part by Stephen DiMenna, the theater’s executive artistic director.
“For our audiences, I want to bring them challenging new American plays that they’re not going to see at any other theater in town. So that they feel like ‘I don’t have to go to New York to see a high-quality production of a new play. I can see it right here, in downtown St. Paul,’ ” DiMenna said.
DiMenna joined Park Square in October 2023, when the theater had a staff of two and was struggling to remain afloat. After a reconfiguration of leadership and a season spent looking for financial backers, the theater returned the following year.
After 25 years living in New York City, working as a freelance director and teaching directing courses at New York University, DiMenna moved to Minnesota in 2019.
“What’s so wonderful about working in the Twin Cities is that it’s a community and all the actors know each other,” DiMenna said. “It’s much more of a family here.”
Park Square opened in 1975 in the 70-seat Park Square Court building. Today, it can seat 550 in the Historic Hamm Building in downtown St. Paul. Its current production, “It’s Only a Play,” runs through Oct. 19.
“I was proud of the work we did when we were tiny, and I was proud of the work that was happening by the time I left, when we were not so tiny,” said former artistic director Richard Cook.
As Park Square’s former and longest-running artistic director, Cook said his responsibilities in those first years included thawing radiator pipes with a propane torch. Cook worked at the theater for 43 years, in different capacities, before retiring in 2018.
“There was a special joy in finding those moments, whether it’s a comedy with a good house laugh, or a more serious play with an ‘Aha!’ moment,” Cook said. “It’s those artists and that audience being in the same place in that moment. There’s that sense of communal experience.”
Twin Cities jazz vocalist and performer Thomasina Petrus has worked with Park Square for years, starring in their production of “Lady Day” as legendary vocalist Billie Holiday in 2008. She later returned to this role ten years later at the Jungle Theater.
“I hope the public starts to realize just how important theater is,” Petrus said. “Theater can encompass so many layers of artistry: dance, music, song, storytelling, set design. All of it is so thoughtful.”
Petrus worked previously with DiMenna in her high school career, when he helped direct the North Community High School production of “Romeo and Juliet” and “West Side Story,” where she played Maria.
“Part of what pleases me is that it seems a good deal of what the theater is doing right now, picks up on some of the points of the legacy that I helped build,” Cook said.
Looking toward the future, DiMeena hopes to expand the theater’s season to six shows, as well as begin high school theater programs in the St. Paul community.
“I think we still have room to grow,” DiMenna said.