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 at this time. 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.
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EFT: Check by phone. Please provide your routing number and account number.
Rates:
The minimum charge is $162 for the first 12 lines.
Every line after the first 12 is $12.
If the ad is under 12 lines it will be charged the minimum rate of $162.
Obituaries including more than 40 lines will receive a 7.5% discount per line.
On a second run date, receive a 20% discount off both the first and second placement.
Place three obituaries and the third placement will be free of charge.
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.
Mike Modano is a retired NHL superstar with a Stanley Cup on his resume, and a statue of him stands guard outside the Dallas Stars home rink. Kris Miller is a Dakota County sheriff’s deputy living with his wife and two young children in the east metro.
When the two of them met up recently, there was no request for proof of insurance or concern about expired license tabs. Instead, there was a handshake, a hug, and shared stories of a time — nearly four decades ago — when the two men were teenagers and traveled into the heart of the Soviet Union to do battle for their country.
The 1988 World Junior Hockey Championship was the first time that Modano was selected for the top American team, but he would go on to represent his country in the Olympics three times and in scores more World Championships and other tournaments.
“It’s even meaningful to get selected, and to be recognized as one of the higher-level American players,” said Modano, now 55 and living in the western suburbs where he is a full-time hockey dad. “You just savor the moments, cherish them, because those opportunities don’t come along too often.”
Miller and Modano were among a few dozen alumni of American teams from the Olympics, World Championships, Goodwill Games and World Juniors who recently gathered at the Minnesota Wild’s downtown St. Paul offices for a reception honoring Minnesotans who have worn the red, white and blue.
Peanut butter players
Miller and Modano were USA teammates in 1987 when they traveled to Moscow for the World Juniors. Modano, from suburban Detroit, was an up-and-coming star forward who would be picked first overall by the Minnesota North Stars in the 1988 NHL Draft. Miller was a rock-solid defenseman from tiny Taconite, Minn., who had been named Minnesota’s Mr. Hockey as a senior at Greenway High School, and by then was getting his feet wet in college hockey as a freshman at Minnesota Duluth.
“It was still communist then, so we had to have KGB with us at all times,” Miller recalled. “We got to see the Kremlin and Lenin’s Tomb. Wearing our Team USA gear, people would come up and ask us for blue jeans, and the KGB got them away from us pretty quick. The hockey was fast. I think Canada ended up winning it.”
Indeed, Canada beat the Americans 5-4 and the host Soviets 3-2 to claim gold when the medals were awarded in early January 1988. Team USA had a rough go in the tournament, finishing 1-6-0, but what Miller recalls is the food.
“The food was not good. We were told to pack our own peanut butter, so we ate a lot of peanut butter and bread,” Miller said, smiling at the memory. He played professionally for the minor league Minnesota Moose in the 1990s and for several seasons in Europe before hanging up his skates.
“I remember we were having chicken soup, and they brought out a bowl with some broth and a whole piece of chicken in the broth,” Miller said. “We all looked at each other up and down the table, like, ‘What is this?’ So, we all brought out our peanut butter and had it with rolls.”
‘Global moment’
The athletes from all over the hockey-playing world who will descend on Minnesota in the coming weeks will experience something completely different St. Paul and Minneapolis host the 2026 World Juniors Dec. 26-Jan. 5.
In the 1980s and 1990s, one could barely find World Juniors scores buried in the back pages of the newspaper. The modern tournament is a world-wide media event drawing more than 200 journalists reporting in several languages. Officials from the International Ice Hockey Federation and USA Hockey are working with the team from Minnesota Sports and Events to ensure that players, coaches and fans have a memorable visit to the Twin Cities, which last hosted this tournament in 1982.
On Monday, USA Hockey announced that eight Minnesotans — three connected to the Gophers — were among the 28 players composing the preliminary American roster.
The primary venues — Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul and 3M Arena at Mariucci in Minneapolis — are ready, as are the host hotels and the Greater Minnesota communities and arenas that will host the pre-tournament training camps and exhibition games which start Dec. 16 in Mankato.
At the alumni event in St. Paul, MSEO CEO Wendy Blackshaw noted that normal hotel occupancy in St. Paul between Christmas and New Years is around 20 percent, and said that this year the rooms will be filled visitors from around the nation and world.
“We’re on the cusp of a global moment for Minnesota,” she said. “And that’s why we do these things. … We are bringing in tens of thousands of fans, players and people who are going to be lining the streets of St. Paul and Minneapolis. They’re going to spend money, they’re going to eat in our restaurants, they’re going to sleep in our hotels.”
Seats available
If there is any area of concern three weeks out from the tournament’s opening games on Dec. 26, it might be ticket sales. Organizers are still hawking them, and promotions have been aimed at getting more fans in arena seats. There was some initial sticker shock when ticket packages costing as much as $3,400 went on sale, but since then there have been many more single-game and group options.
As of Wednesday morning, one resale website had Grand Casino Arena tickets, 11 rows up from the ice, for the opening day game between Sweden and Slovakia selling for $35. The “get in the door” price for USA vs. Germany later that day was $82.
In past years, when the World Juniors have been hosted by border states such New York, Michigan and North Dakota, scores of Canadian fans have made the trek south. In 2025, the current political climate and an unfavorable exchange rate has limited that number, which is another concern.
In addition to Ticketmaster, SeatGeek and other outlets, World Juniors tickets can be purchased at the official mnsportsandevents.org website, which also features a full schedule of games and off-ice events.
WORLD JUNIORS
2026 IIHF junior world championships, Dec. 26–Jan. 5, St. Paul and Minneapolis.
Grand Casino Arena, Group A: United States, Germany, Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland.
3M Arena at Mariucci, Group B: Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Finland and Latvia.
Quarterfinals, semifinals and the championship will be at Grand Casino Arena.