Humorous Obituary Example
One of the advantages of working on an obituary while you or your loved one is still alive is the ability to have some fun with it. Inside jokes, funny anecdotes and a true celebration of spirit are all in play. It’s just so much easier to take this approach when you’re not sad immediately after a person’s passing.
(Note: Kathie is still very much alive)
Kathie Tilot, loved by dozens as Kathie Hall for much of her professional career, and admired by a select few as “Kathie Radio-voice,” passed away recently from any number of reasons – all undoubtedly caused by Mercury in retrograde.
Her demise may have come from the combined effects of walking through the electric fence around her yard with the dog’s collar in her pocket or the degeneration of her knee joints on her freakish “farm girl legs.” Honestly, Kathie had so many hurdles to overcome that it’s amazing she made it from one day to the next.
Our heroine grew up as Kathie Hoida (the first in a long succession of surnames) on a farm in Kewaunee County, Wisconsin. After acquiring the requisite farm girl gait that would haunt her throughout her adult life, Kathie found her first love of being on the radio. Few people enjoyed hearing themselves talk as much as our dear Kathie.
Despite having to play an endless succession of polkas in 18-hour shifts on WAUN Radio in Kewaunee in her early years, Kathie was convinced she had found her calling. The alter-ego that would later become her trademark “Kathie Radio-voice” personality began to develop during this period, when all of 14 farmers and 42 cows would hang on her every word spiced between the oom-pahs.
Her passion for fine music eventually led her to a career as a groupie for her long-haired boyfriend’s band, High Flyer. Glen Tilot eventually came out from behind his drum set long enough to get a haircut and make this fine-lookin’ groupie his wife, and together the couple produced three children.
Spaced equally apart in intervals of six years (it takes awhile to build up that kind of passion, apparently), she is survived in addition to Glen by Ryan (Lauren) and their two children, Betsy (Quentin Sanders), and Tessa (Marcus) Rufledt.
Kathie’s velvet-smooth voiceovers graced the on-hold messages at St. Mary’s Hospital Medical Center in Green Bay for so long that her spirit still roams the halls. Like the ghost of Sr. Marie of the Immaculate Conception a century earlier, Kathie’s familiar “chshshsh” giggle can still be heard in the Marketing & Communications Department.
After leaving St. Mary’s in 2010, Kathie took a position as pastoral minister at Prince of Peace Catholic Community to fulfill her vocational calling, and later became spiritual director at St. Norbert Abbey.
Kathie chose cremation instead of a wooden coffin because she didn’t want to harm any trees in the process of dying. She was, first and foremost, a tree-hugger at heart.
A public farewell service will be held to honor her legacy. Visitors can relate their favorite Kathie story, and a keepsake booklet documenting stories from “The Kathie File” is planned from the resulting hilarity.
This fun-filled sendoff was approved by Kathie prior to her death. She requests that you remember the joy with which she lived her life, and have peace in knowing she lives today in paradise with the Lord.