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A man's colorful obituary for his father has gone viral

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

Robert Adolph Boehm, in accordance with his lifelong dedication to his own personal brand of decorum, muttered his last unintelligible and likely unnecessary curse on October 6, 2024.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

That's the start of the obituary for Robert Boehm, who died at the age of 74 earlier this month. We can't say his final curse on the radio, but the obit went viral.

DETROW: It was written by Robert's son, Charles Boehm, who told the Washington Post he wanted to write an obituary that was as unpredictable and funny as his dad was throughout his life.

SHAPIRO: The obit was posted on Facebook. It mentions his father's habit of wearing unconventional hats around town with boldly mismatched shirts and pants.

DETROW: And how he took up a new hobby late in life, shooting, which led to two holes in his car's dashboard.

SHAPIRO: The son wrote of his father, quote, "Robert also kept a wide selection of harmonicas on hand - not to play personally, but to prompt his beloved dogs to howl continuously at odd hours of the night."

DETROW: And it ended by writing, quote, "we have all done our best to enjoy/weather Robert's antics up to this point, but he is God's problem now."

(SOUNDBITE OF 4FARGO SONG, "GET HER") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Tinbete Ermyas
[Copyright 2024 NPR]

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.