CLARENDON, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) – The Texas Panhandle town of Clarendon where the late Robert Boehm called home has a population of only about 2,000 people. But by the time of his memorial service on Monday morning, his antics had managed to bring joy to people around the world.
Robert Adolph Boehm, who died on Oct. 6 at 74, did not gain international fame during his time on this earth. But, like innumerable others who have gone before him on the High Plains, he was loved by his family and his community.
When he died, however, his personality was celebrated by folks far and wide thanks to a silly obituary written by his son and published on the Robertson Funeral Directors website.
“It just kind of turned into a walk down memory lane of all of the little funny antics that I remember him going through in his life and our time together,” said Charles Boehm, the author of the obituary.
It begins with an explanation that the elder Boehm “muttered his last unintelligible and likely unnecessary curse on October 6, 2024, shortly before tripping backward over ‘some stupid mother****ing thing’ and hitting his head on the floor.”
Boehm also collected historical weapons, his son wrote, and took an interest in guns despite having missed military service during the Vietnam War.
“This lack of military service was probably for the best, as when taking up shooting as a hobby in his later years, he managed to blow not one, but two holes in the dash of his own car on two separate occasions, which unfortunately did not even startle, let alone surprise, his dear wife Dianne, who was much accustomed to such happenings in his presence and may have actually been safer in the jungles of Vietnam the entire time,” his obituary reads.
Boehm’s son also detailed his father’s penchant for wearing mismatched clothing around town, and for playing the harmonica solely to rile up his dogs.
He would also increasingly subject his fellow Clarendon residents to his antics after the death of his wife, his son said.
“Earlier this year, in February, God finally showed mercy upon Dianne, getting her the hell out of there for some well-earned peace and quiet. Without Dianne to gleefully entertain, Robert shifted his creative focus to the entertainment of you, the fine townspeople of Clarendon, Texas. Over the last eight months, if you have not met Robert or seen his road show yet, you probably would have soon.
“We have all done our best to enjoy/weather Robert’s antics up to this point, but he is God’s problem now.”
After the obituary was published on the funeral home’s social media page on Oct. 10, the memorial went viral.
“One thing kind of led to another and it just turned from an almost funny roast into a letter to the people of Clarendon as a thank you for them taking care of him when I couldn’t be there and an apology for some of the crazy antics he got up to in my absence,” said Charles Boehm.
The obituary has since been decorated with comments from strangers around the country.
“A funky, cool, eccentric man if I ever heard of one!” commented one person from Minnesota, “He sounds like he was an interesting human!”
“I never had the joy of meeting Robert, but he sounds like an awesome man. I can only hope when it’s my time to go, many years down the line, that my kids have the love and humor to share my life in this way,” wrote another from Kansas.
Charles Boehm’s wife Kim expressed surprise at the virality of the obituary, saying she was baffled that “people from all over” had been responding. (She also noted on social media that Boehm’s family members had found four harmonicas “immediately” while cleaning his apartment.)
Charles Boehm, meanwhile, wants readers to know that his father was indeed loved — and that they, too, would be wise to stay in touch with their aging parents.
“Make sure that you don’t forget about your parents there are a lot old of people in these little rural towns whose kids have grown up and moved to bigger cities for better job opportunities and they leave there parents behind. Just don’t forget where you came from and make sure that your parents or anybody else in your life that you love knows that you care about them even if you’re far away,” said Boehm.
