Parting Thoughts: Remembering lives lost to COVID-19

Through conversations with their family members, colleagues and close friends, MPR News is remembering the lives of the people we’ve lost, too soon, to COVID-19.

Your stories If you’d like to share the story of someone you’ve lost to COVID-19, please email us at tell@mpr.org.

Full coverage COVID-19 in Minnesota | Morning Edition All Parting Thoughts conversations

June 25, 2020 1:00 AM

PRX special: A Sudden Loss — A memorial to lives lost to COVID-19

More than 120,000 Americans have died from COVID-19. Public radio hosts, past and present, read short eulogies of just some of these people lost to the coronavirus pandemic in the last several months.

by MPR News Staff

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June 15, 2020 4:00 AM

Pequot Lakes man who died of COVID-19 remembered for humor, generous spirit

Maury Graham’s family and friends say he was a talented salesman and a savvy real estate investor. He loved adventurous road trips and fishing, though his friends say his stories about the fish he didn't land were far more dramatic than his actual catches.

by Kirsti Marohn

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June 7, 2020 10:25 AM

'She was a book of generosity and fire': St. Paul school board chair Marny Xiong dies from COVID-19

"We prepared a celebration for her return and waited, and waited but she never came home," Xiong's family said in a statement posted online. "We prayed and prayed for a miracle but none was granted."

by Emily Bright

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May 26, 2020 4:00 AM

'Everybody respected him': Faribault pastor remembered for compassion, embrace

Craig Breimhorst was the kind of guy who would walk into a room, and within 10 minutes was friends with everyone — which came in handy when he started his own church in Faribault over 30 years ago. He died on April 16 at 71, Rice County’s first victim of the coronavirus.

by Dan Kraker

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May 25, 2020 11:00 AM

'He never took anything for granted': Ad man remembered for support of arts, 'world-famous' pasta

Conrad Razidlo was an ad man and an artist, active in politics, the arts — and his family’s epic pasta competitions. He died April 13, of complications from COVID-19. He was 85.

by Angela Davis and Meg Martin

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May 21, 2020 6:44 AM

'I didn't want him to feel alone': A daughter's complicated goodbye to her father

Civil war scattered Mohamed Omer’s family more than 30 years ago. He spent his life trying to unscatter them. Just a few years after finally arriving in Minnesota, on April 29, he died of COVID-19.

by John Enger

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May 19, 2020 10:19 AM

'She could be a voice for other people': Annie Glenn, widow of Sen. John Glenn and communications advocate, dies at 100

Annie Glenn, the widow of astronaut and U.S. Sen. John Glenn and a communication disorders advocate, died Tuesday of complications from COVID-19. She was 100. Her daughter, Lyn, talked about her mother with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer.

by Cathy Wurzer and The Associated Press

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May 13, 2020 4:00 AM

‘We can’t even say goodbye’: Judge lost to COVID-19 remembered for wit, compassion

As a rural lawyer and judge, Steven Anderson never sought the limelight. On April 17, he became the first Mille Lacs County resident to die from the coronavirus.

by Kirsti Marohn

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April 30, 2020 10:20 AM

Counter Stories: A personal journey of grief in the era of COVID-19

Co-host Don Eubanks shares his experience of his mother's death and the anguish of mourning loved ones while in isolation.

by Jo Erickson and Marianne Combs

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April 15, 2020 5:31 PM

'He was the bingo man at the nursing home': Mark Novak remembers his dad, Leonard

COVID-19 has claimed the lives of dozens of Minnesotans. Mark Novak remembers his father, Leonard Novak, who died from the virus in a New Hope nursing home.

by Tarkor Zehn and Tom Crann

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