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.
On Monday night, we officially have our Harvest Moon for 2025, and it’s also our first of three Supermoons. I’m totally OK calling it a Harvest Moon but I’m far from being in love with the Supermoon moniker. I’ll defend my case on that later.
If it seems that the Harvest Moon is late this year, you’re right. Most folks assume that any full moon anytime in September is the Harvest Moon, but technically, that’s not the case. The semiofficial definition of a Harvest Moon is the full moon that is closest to the date of the autumnal equinox, otherwise known as the first day of astronomical autumn. The fall equinox this year was Sept. 22, 14 days before the full moon this Monday night. The full moon in September was on the 7th, 15 days from the equinox. So just by a nose, our October full moon wins. Honestly, who really cares?
Astronomically, the harvest moon is special because of the unique celestial mechanics of this time of year. The moon migrates eastward among the stars each night because of its 27.3-day orbit around Earth. Because of that, the moon usually rises about 30 to 60 minutes later each night. Around the time of the autumnal equinox, though, the moon rises only about 20 minutes later each night, making it seem that the full moon is lasting longer.
Harvest Moons really don’t look all that different from any other full moon. You may have seen a picture of a big orange harvest moon rising. Full moons the rest of the year appear more or less just as large. No matter what phase the moon is in, it sports that orange-red color when it rises or sets because when it’s close to the horizon, we see it through the thicker and dustier layers of Earth’s atmosphere. That scatters away all but the reddish components of the white light of the moon. When the moon is higher, we do see it through a thinner layer of our atmosphere and the scattering effect goes away. The reason full moons look much larger when they rise or set is simply an optical illusion. Prove that to yourself by holding a nickel out at arm’s length when the full moon is rising and again when it’s at its highest around midnight, and you’ll see that your nickel will cover exactly the same amount of the moon.
Calling the moon on Monday night a supermoon is a bit of a stretch. By definition from an astrologer and not an astronomer, a supermoon is any full moon that’s a little closer to Earth than average. Since the moon’s orbit around the Earth is not a perfect circle but rather an ellipse or oval, the moon’s distance from Earth can vary in its orbit, but not all that much. I’m not going to get into all the numbers here except to say that when you have a “supermoon,” the moon is only 7% larger and only 14% brighter. It’s not that big of a deal. You can hardly tell the difference.
Call me a curmudgeon but the term “supermoon” is more hype than anything else. Calling it a Harvest Moon is just fine with me.
Comet Swan may make a show!
C/2025 R2 SWAN is the formal name for a comet that was discovered last month. I’m always leery about talking about comets, especially new ones, because they can be so unpredictable. They may not turn out to be as bright as predicted or the sun could totally break up this dirty cosmic snowball. Assuming that doesn’t happen, look for Comet Swan this week in the very low southwestern sky just above the horizon near the bright star Antares as you can see in the diagram. It’s going to be tough to spot but you may catch it with binoculars and possibly with the naked eye in the countryside. As October continues, it’ll appear a little higher in the sky and may be easier to see. Currently, the comet is approximately 37 million miles away and traveling at a speed of just under 110,000 mph.
Early in the morning, not far from the Big Dipper, another comet is brightening. It’s Comet Lemmon, best seen before morning twilight. It could become visible to the naked eye in mid-October. I’ll have more on that next week in Skywatch.
Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and retired broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and adventurepublications.net. Mike is available for private star parties. You can contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.