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,
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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.
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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.
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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:
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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.
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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)
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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.
Sweden’s Home Baking Council started celebrating “Cinnamon Bun Day” — known there as kanelbullens dag — on Oct. 4, 1999, as a way to honor household traditions.
It soon became an annual event.
Officials in Scandia, the north Washington County city founded by Swedish immigrants, began marking the special day in 2018 by passing out free cinnamon buns in downtown Scandia.
They’ll be at it again on Friday and plan to distribute 900 homemade buns, up from 600 a year ago.
“We ran out last year, and we’re determined not to run short this year,” said Patti Ray, who is helping to organize the event.
About 700 of the buns will be distributed from 6 to 9 a.m. at Olinda Trail and Oakhill Road; another 200 will be distributed at Gammelgården Museum from from 9:30 a.m. “until the buns run out,” Ray said.
A group of about 10 volunteers spent Wednesday and Thursday making buns at the Scandia Community Center and Elim Lutheran Church, Ray said.
The event is sponsored by Gammelgården Museum, the Scandia-Marine Lions Club, the city of Scandia and the Scandia Sister City Council.
Ray; Lynne Moratzka, former director of the Gammelgården Museum, and Darlene Holtgreve, president of the Scandia-Marine Lions Club, spent Thursday at the Scandia Community Center. “They’re all baked, and we’re putting frosting on them now,” Ray said. “They each go in separate boxes, and we’ve got 100 of them in boxes already.”
The bun bestowal was the brainchild of Moratzka.
“It’s such a beloved event in Sweden that we decided to borrow the holiday here,” Moratzka said. “It’s a pleasure to do it because it surprises so many people with kindness.”
Volunteers decided to hold the Scandia event on Friday rather than Saturday, the official day in Sweden, because “there are more people in town on Friday,” she said. “We wouldn’t have any commuters on a Saturday.”
Originally Published: October 2, 2025 at 12:41 PM CDT