Obituary/Facebook Renay Mandel Corrern
Renay Mandel Corren was a Texas woman whose son’s obituary, describing her as a “bawdy, fertile, redheaded matriach” has gone viral.
The obituary ran in the Fayetteville Observer newspaper in North Carolina. It declared that a “plus-sized Jewish lady redneck died in El Paso,” Texas, on December 11, 2021.
The obituary mocked, in a loving way, Corren’s many vices, while praising her many talents.
In a follow-up story, the Observer revealed that Corren’s son is named Andy, and he’s “a Fayetteville native who now lives in Upstate New York, working as a talent manager and writer.” That story reveals that Corren died at age 84.
“A life indulgently lived is something to celebrate,” Andy Corren told the newspaper.
Here’s what you need to know:
The Humorous Obituary Paid Tribute to Corren, Revealing She Had ‘Kicked It’
The obituary started with a humorous twist.
“Of itself hardly news, or good news if you’re the type that subscribes to the notion that anybody not named you dying in El Paso, Texas is good news. In which case have I got news for you: the bawdy, fertile, redheaded matriarch of a sprawling Jewish-Mexican-Redneck American family has kicked it,” it reads.
The obit made fun of Corren’s love of ham and credit score.
“This was not good news to Renay Mandel Corren’s many surviving children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, many of whom she even knew and, in her own way, loved. There will be much mourning in the many glamorous locales she went bankrupt in: McKeesport, PA, Renay’s birthplace and where she first fell in love with ham, and atheism; Fayetteville and Kill Devil Hills, NC, where Renay’s dreams, credit rating and marriage are all buried; and of course Miami, FL, where Renay’s parents, uncles, aunts, and eternal hopes of all Miami Dolphins fans everywhere, are all buried pretty deep. Renay was preceded in death by Don Shula,” it said.
“Because she was my mother, the death of zaftig good-time gal Renay Corren at the impossible old age of 84 is newsworthy to me, and I treat it with the same respect and reverence she had for, well, nothing. A more disrespectful, trash-reading, talking and watching woman in NC, FL or TX was not to be found. Hers was an itinerant, much-lived life, a Yankee Florida liberal Jewish Tough Gal who bowled ’em in Japan, rolled ’em in North Carolina and was a singularly unique parent.”
According to her son, “Often frustrated by the stifling, conservative culture of the South, Renay turned her voracious mind to the home front, becoming a model stay at home parent, a supermom, really, just the perfect PTA lady, volunteer, amateur baker and-AHHAHAA HA! HA! HA! Just kidding, y’all! Renay – Rosie to her friends, and this was a broad who never met a stranger – worked double shifts with Doreen, ate a ton of carbs with Bernie, and could occasionally be stirred to stew some stuffed cabbage for the kids.”
She told people she was a top-ranked cribbage player, she “played cards like a shark, bowled and played cribbage like a pro,” and she “lied a lot.”
Doreen DeJayne, a friend of Corren’s, told the Observer that Corren had helped her in a time of need. “She didn’t know me, but she still helped me,” DeJaynes said to the newspaper. “She had my heart and loyalty right from the very beginning.”
Her Son Write That Corren Lived a Life That Was Lived ‘Large, Broke & Loud’
“But on the plus side, Renay didn’t cook, she didn’t clean, and she was lousy with money, too. Here’s what Renay was great at: dyeing her red roots, weekly manicures, dirty jokes, pier fishing, rolling joints and buying dirty magazines. She said she read them for the articles, but filthy free speech was really Renay’s thing. Hers was a bawdy, rowdy life lived large, broke and loud,” the obit says.
Her son was surprised she didn’t die sooner.
“We thought Renay could not be killed. God knows, people tried. A lot. Renay has been toying with death for a decades, but always beating it and running off in her silver Chevy Nova. Covid couldn’t kill Renay. Neither could pneumonia twice, infections, blood clots, bad feet, breast cancer twice, two mastectomies, two recessions, multiple bankruptcies, marriage to a philandering Sergeant Major, divorce in the 70’s, six kids, one cesarean,” the obit continued.
You can read the full obituary here.
On her Facebook page, Corren posted pictures showing her smiling while enjoying time with loved ones.
She wrote that she “Studied at University of Miami” and “Lives in El Paso, Texas.” She was divorced and from McKeesport, Pennsylvania. Her top visible post is about online slot machines and reads, “I just hit the JACKPOT! Today’s going to be a great day!” In fact, most of her posts are about online gaming. She also declared in a post about books that she liked “thrillers and mysteries.”
In 2012, she wrote about politics, saying, “Yeah…I’m a liberal democrat and thats nothing to brag about in these horrid political years. I was born into a Jewish hard democratic family and brainwashed as I grew up. I read the New York Times from the time I was about 10 and subscribed for many years. Here in El Paso, I get the Sunday edition delivered and was reading the weekly edition on my tablet when they cut down to twenty articles a month and NOW to 10 articles monthly. My Tea Party friends (you know who you are) refer to the NYT as the New York Slimes and after their last cut I am beginning to agree with them. I also read the Washington Post, USA today, Fayetteville Observer etal and they permit me to read as much as I want. End of rant.”
She mused about writing an autobiography. “Just finished book 2 of 50 Shades of Grey and about to delve into numrero 3. I always thought if I wrote my autobiography I would include the the reason why i read such trash,” she wrote. “I spent much time at my grandma Mandel’s house as a child. My uncle Myer or “Dash” as he was called lived with grandma after he returned from WW2. He had a comfy room with a huge feather bed and many goose down pillows and as soon as he would leave for work early in the morning i would jump into his bed and appropriate his very inappropriate reading material. Dash read ‘true crime’ magazines, very explicit with pictures also. I began to read these at age 7 and by age 9 no longer read children’s books. I had a brief period in college when Ayn Rand ruled but soon, back to the junk pile.”