WORLD'S SHORTEST OBITUARY

Douglas Legler died in Fargo, North Dakota. Doug’s obituary in the paper simply read: “Doug died.” Janet Stoll, Legler’s daughter, said her dad “used to say over and over, when I die I want my obituary to just say ‘Doug Died’. Other people’s obituaries would say ‘he was the president of this, a director of this’ and Dad would say, ‘What, couldn’t they hold down a job?'” Despite the brevity of his obituary, Legler lived a rich and full life, Stoll says. He was a longtime driver for Nash Finch food distributors, later working in vending machine repair and painting farm equipment. He was a singer, too, and once placed second in a talent show. He was a fan of country music, especially the music of Ernest Tubb. He loved cars and took the occasional trip to the casino.
* Thanks a lot, Janet. Those are exactly the mundane details Doug was trying to avoid.
* “Doug died.” Gee, it’s almost as though you knew the guy.
* He will be missed and if you didn’t look closely, you’d miss his obituary too.
* Of course, it’s sometimes valuable to have a record of what we did here on the planet, but I guess that’s not a big deal.
* Driving a food truck, repairing vending machines, and painting farm equipment is a rich, full life? If you say so.
* It Doug’s own words – “What, couldn’t he hold down a job?”
* Imagine if Doug wrote world history? “The Roman Empire ended.” Next!
* World War 2: We won. Moving on …
* Here’s Doug’s complete history of George Washington: “The father of our country.” Done.