Star Tribune
With viral obit, local music matriarch Mary Lou Westerberg gets her due
She cheered for the Twins, loved Chuck Berry and did the crossword puzzle each day.
Mary Lou Westerberg, who died July 2, was the mother of Replacements rocker Paul Westerberg and radio DJ Mary Lucia. But her obituary has gone viral because its details capture the extraordinary nature of what might appear to be, at first, an ordinary life.
Westerberg thought “The Wizard of Oz” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” were “sentimental fantasy crap,” according to the obituary, which Lucia wrote.
“Her signature fragrance was Estee Lauder’s Youth Dew.”
“At the time of her passing she had active crushes on Rudy Gobert, [Byron] Buxton, ad some dude whose name we don’t know from ‘Dancing With the Stars.'”
A lifelong Minneapolis resident, Westerberg was 100 at the time of her death, “yet she still had all her smarts,” her daughter Julie said by phone Tuesday. “She still was just a crackerjack.”
It’s been a tough week for the Westerberg family. Laurie Lindeen, singer/guitarist in the pioneering Twin Cities rock band Zuzu’s Petals and Paul Westerberg’s ex-wife, died July 1 of a brain aneurysm. She was 62.
“With the shocking passing of Laurie Lindeen. Both my brother and his son lost their mothers less than a day apart,” Mary Lucia wrote on Facebook, sharing the news. “Daylight is good at arriving at the right time. It’s not always gonna be this grey.”
Raising her five kids, Mary Lou Westerberg was “loving and giving and kind of silly,” Julie Westerberg said, forever retrieving something delicious from the kitchen.
She loved baseball — and the men who played it, Julie said. “It really was everything to her,” the obituary says. “Though none of us have taken a DNA test, the possibility that some of her children might be fathered by the Boston Red Sox’s Ted Williams remains a running joke.”
The family’s obituary for Mary Lou’s husband, Hal, had a similar emphasis on the details that define a lifetime.
“He was an expert bridge player, put ketchup on everything he ate, and shined our shoes for Mass on Sunday,” according to that obituary, from 2003. “He did our taxes (only 3 out of 4 were audited) and cured our earaches with a puff of cigar smoke.
“He owned a pair of ruby slippers and yet never wished for a different life.”
Star Tribune staff writer Chris Riemenschneider contributed to this story.
About 50 Ukrainian refugees have signed up to donate blood on Saturday in Minneapolis as a way to give thanks to Americans for welcoming them to this country and for support in the face of Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine.
The donated blood will then be given to the Children’s Hospital of Minnesota.
The Ukrainian American Community Center, located at 301 NE Main St. in Minneapolis, has organized the event. The blood drive will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, said Iryna Petrus, community outreach manager at the center.
“It’s a sign of gratitude to Americans for supporting Ukraine and saving children’s lives in Ukraine,” said Yosyf Sabir, speaking on behalf of the blood drive.
It’s also a way to say “thank you to the United States for welcoming us so warmly,” said Petrus. She said there will be a program at 10 a.m. Saturday when several leaders of the Ukrainian American Community Center will speak. She said the center is hopeful that Ukrainian groups in other parts of North America will do similar blood drives.
Those who are unable to give blood have been asked to donate cash, which will be used to purchase tourniquets that will sent to Ukraine to be used by persons who have been injured in the war. Every $50 raised will purchase one hemostatic tourniquet, the Ukrainian Center said in a news release.
If approved, that approach would drop the district’s fund balance to 6% of general fund expenditures. The current board policy is to maintain a fund balance of at least 10% of general fund expenditures.
Anoka-Hennepin’s current operating referendum brings in about $1,154 per student, but the state-allowed cap is about $2,200 per student. If increased to the cap amount, a referendum would bring in another $40 million, McIntyre said.
According to community feedback collected through surveys and community meetings over the last month, nearly 90% of respondents said they supported a referendum. Parents and families also expressed concern about growing class sizes as a result of cuts.
The two options have already been revised based on board members’ requests to reduce cuts that would mean fewer teachers at schools, McIntyre said.
At one point in the discussion, the district floated changes to middle and high school class schedules to save money, but that was removed after board member feedback. At the board’s meeting last month, several board members thanked district staff for transparency about potential cuts and responsiveness to board and community feedback.
“I would encourage people to keep asking questions,” Board Member Michelle Langenfeld said at the September board meeting, “because as we unfold more information, the opportunity becomes greater for us to make the most informed decision under these very, very difficult circumstances.”
On Monday morning, contract workers began snipping razor wire and removing it from fencing that was propped atop concrete barriers along the perimeter of the former Third Precinct police station, which was set ablaze during the uprising over George Floyd’s police killing.
Finally, the concrete barricades will come down, after 4.5 years. As private security guards looked on, contractors began removing the security measures put in place to secure the building at 3000 Minnehaha Av. after it became a focal point of protests.
For the past three years, Third Precinct police officers have been based out of a city building in downtown Minneapolis, with plans to eventually bring them back to a south Minneapolis Community Safety Center just down the street at 2633 Minnehaha Av.
What to do with the former police station – home to what has been called a “playground” for renegade cops – has been the subject of heated debate, with the Minneapolis City Council and Mayor Jacob Frey at odds.
While the city debated its future, some conservatives jumped at the chance to use the charred building as a backdrop to hold press conferences and news reports in which they blasted the city and its leaders. Most recently, vice presidential nominee JD Vance made a campaign stop in front of the building earlier this month to blast his opponent, Gov. Tim Walz, for his handling of the 2020 riots and portray Minneapolis as a city overrun with crime.
GOP vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance speaks outside the former Minneapolis Police 3rd Precinct building in Minneapolis on Oct. 14. (Leila Navidi)
After that, several council members expressed frustration at the city’s failure to clean up the site. Despite signs saying “cleanup efforts are underway,” concrete barriers, fencing and razor wire remained all summer.
Council Member Aurin Chowdhury said earlier this month that the blight makes people feel uncared for and gives opportunists a backdrop to manipulate the scene for political gain.
Council Member Linea Palmisano blamed some of her council colleagues for the delays, accusing some members of being “desperate for any objection” to Frey’s proposal. The council passed a resolution saying that the building should not be used for any law enforcement functions again. Palmisano called it disgraceful that the building remains, scarred and secured, over four years later.
