Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Obituaries in the News: Marianne Theresa Johnson-Reddick

Johnson-Reddick's obituary which reportedly came from her surviving children, was printed in the Nevada's Reno-Gazette Journal on Tuesday. The text of the obituary, which has since been pulled from the website, is as follows:

Marianne Theresa Johnson-Reddick born Jan 4, 1935 and died alone on Aug. 30, 2013. She is survived by her 6 of 8 children whom she spent her lifetime torturing in every way possible. While she neglected and abused her small children, she refused to allow anyone else to care or show compassion towards them. When they became adults she stalked and tortured anyone they dared to love. Everyone she met, adult or child was tortured by her cruelty and exposure to violence, criminal activity, vulgarity, and hatred of the gentle or kind human spirit.


On behalf of her children whom she so abrasively exposed to her evil and violent life, we celebrate her passing from this earth and hope she lives in the after-life reliving each gesture of violence, cruelty, and shame that she delivered on her children. Her surviving children will now live the rest of their lives with the peace of knowing their nightmare finally has some form of closure.

Most of us have found peace in helping those who have been exposed to child abuse and hope this message of her final passing can revive our message that abusing children is unforgivable, shameless, and should not be tolerated in a "humane society". Our greatest wish now, is to stimulate a national movement that mandates a purposeful and dedicated war against child abuse in the United States of America.

If this came from the surviving family, her six children, then it is the official obituary. Because this was done online, it is difficult to say that this was genuinely done at the request of the survivors. I understand RGJ's stance on pulling the obituary until further details could be known, because this currently could present an issue of libel if the allegations are false. I am somewhat surprised that it was not caught prior to being printed. It should not have seen physical print without verification from all the surviving family members. A death notice would have sufficed instead. I've not seen a negative obituary come through the funeral home, but I'm not entirely sure how it would be best handled. 

3 comments:

  1. I hope one, or more, of her kids wrote this. May they find peace now she's gone.

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  2. You can't libel a dead person. Just so you know.

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    Replies
    1. That's not entirely true. There are ten states in the United States that have laws against. defamation of the dead. Nevada, where the obituary was published, is one of them. I currently live in one of the other states, so this is a potential issue at the funeral home where I work. I know it's probably different where you live. Honestly, I have no clue about the defamation laws in other countries, either, but that would certainly be something interesting to find out!

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