Son’s obituary for ‘plus-sized redneck’ mother goes viral

A son’s online obituary of his Jewish mother who died in Texas last weekend has gone viral as a result of its colourful description of her life.

Andy Corren began his 1,000-word tribute to his 84-year-old Renay Mandel Corren by stating: “A plus-sized Jewish lady redneck died in El Paso on Saturday.”

The obituary, in the Fayetteville Observer, in the North Carolina city near where Corren lived for many years, was tweeted by the crime writer Sarah Weinman, leading to it going viral.

Corren left few secrets on his mother’s life out of the tribute. “She left me nothing but these lousy memories,” he wrote. “ Which I, and my family of five brothers and my sister-in-laws, nephews, friends, nieces, neighbours, ex-boyfriends, Larry King’s children, who I guess I might be one of, the total strangers who all, to a person, loved and will cherish her. Forever.

“Please think of the brightly-frocked, frivolous, funny and smart Jewish redhead who is about to grift you, tell you a filthy joke, and for Larry King’s sake: LAUGH. Bye, Mommy. We loved you to bits.”

Detailing a life spent mostly in North Carolina, Florida and Texas, he said of his mother’s time on this earth: “Hers was a bawdy, rowdy life lived large, broke and loud.

“We thought Renay could not be killed. God knows, people tried. A lot.”

Born to a Jewish family in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, Corren said his mother had “first fell in love with ham, and atheism”.

The obit detailed how after the breakdown of marriage, she lived in Miami and, most recently, with a son in El Paso.