Hartford Courant
'She really just wanted to live long enough to see Donald Trump voted out.' Connecticut obituaries get political in hyperpartisan era
By Daniela Altimari, The Hartford Courant
HARTFORD, Conn. — Louise “Stephanie” Evans lived a full life, raising three children, attending church and indulging in her love of painting, crafting and antiquing.
But when she died at 93 following a stroke, she had — according to her death notice — one regret: “She really just wanted to live long enough to see Donald Trump voted out of office.”
While the dead can’t vote, they can make a final plea to the living. And in this heated election season, obituaries have become a forum for partisan messages and a way for families to honor the political wishes of their loved ones.
“As Dorothy — a fierce critic of Trump to the end and a loving Christian — wished, we ask that, in lieu of flowers, those interested consider donating money or their time to the charity or good work of their choosing” read the death notice for Dorothy Blume, an 85-year-old West Hartford woman who died of ovarian cancer in June.
A death notice for Patricia Gagne published in The Bristol Press in August notes that she died “a day after she had celebrated Joe Biden’s acceptance speech as the Democratic nominee for President.” Her sons and grandchildren will hold a memorial for her “after light and decency enter the White House and COVID-19 is vanquished — just as Patty would have wanted.”
When Vivian Kania of Granby, a retired teacher and school counselor, a tennis player and an avid UConn women’s basketball fan, died this summer, “she had fifteen pages remaining of Mary L. Trump’s ‘Too Much and Never Enough,’ “ according to her obituary. “Vivian’s dream was that she would live to see the first woman elected president in her lifetime.”
In Connecticut, anti-Trump messages are far more common than those backing the president, according to a search on Legacy.com
James J. Cifarelli Sr., an 88-year-old Army veteran from East Haven, enjoyed trips to the casino, hunting and fishing and was immensely proud of his garden. “He was a true patriot, American proud, and hoped to live to see Trump re-elected,” states his obituary published in August.
Cifarelli’s daughter, Rae Kaika, said the message reflects her father’s beliefs. “He was a strong Republican,” she said.
In our hyperpartisan era, the politicization of death notices isn’t surprising, said Janice Hume, a University of Georgia journalism professor and author of “Obituaries in American Culture.”
“The political divide is just what is on everyone’s mind these days, so naturally it crops up in obits,” Hume said. “It could be a way to honor the last wishes of the deceased, or it could be that he or she expressed strong opinions about politics — a lot — and that’s what loved ones remember.”
An obit provides news about someone’s death, she added, “but it (also) offers a tiny synopsis of what we want to remember about that person’s life. Taken collectively, obits tell us something about what we value in our culture.”
Embedding a political message is a death notice is part of a larger move toward more conversational, less stuffy obituaries, a trend accelerated by the rise of online memoriums. It’s common now to see pets listed among survivors, or for an obit to note which sports teams the deceased rooted for.
Stephanie Evans was vocal about her distaste for Trump, said her son, Kevin Evans. “She mentioned it repeatedly,” he said. “She disliked him from day one.”
His mother was a staunch Democrat but she never spoke negatively about Reagan or Bush, Evans said. Including a line about Trump in her obit seemed perfectly appropriate, he said.
David W. Jackson was a lifelong Republican. Born in Virginia, he settled in Connecticut after taking a job with Hamilton Standard. He sang in his church choir, was active in the Sierra Club and took up swimming after he stopped running at age 73.
Jackson had planned to vote for Joe Biden. “As a proud American, active conservationist, faithful Christian … David’s only regret would be that he is not here to fill out his mail in voting form to vote for a Biden/Harris ticket and to see Trump get skunked in 2020,” read his death notice.
Joyce Anne Jackson said she had many conversations with her husband before he suffered a fatal stroke in late September. “We were both really excited to get our ballots out and vote,” she said. “We were both going to vote the entire Democratic ticket.”
The couple applied for absentee ballots; David Jackson’s arrived in the mail on Oct. 2, six days after his death.
“I had to send the ballot back empty, saying that he died,” Joyce Anne Jackson said. “But I’m hoping wherever he is he can put in a good word about this election.”
