GALVESTON, TX (KTRK/CNN) – A brutally honest obituary was so popular it crashed a funeral home’s website.
Now, the man’s daughter is saying she stands behind every word of it, and that her father did not deserve to be remembered fondly.
Leslie Ray Charping’s obit starts out like any other, “born in Galveston, TX, on Nov. 20, 1942 and passed away Jan. 30, 2017.”
But then it takes a hard turn expressing the contempt with which his family viewed him.
“Which was 29 years longer than expected, and much longer than he deserved,” the obituary reads.
And that’s just the beginning. The obituary continues describing a series of unsavory acts and even derides his military service saying that he joined the Navy not because of a patriotism and a desire to serve his country but through a plea bargain to avoid jail time.
It also describes a bout with mental illness, saying he embarrassed both his family and the country.
“I told the truth,” Sheila Smith, Charping’s daughter, said. “I am not sorry for telling the truth and I am not sorry for standing up for myself.”
Several accounts describe Charping as physically and verbally abusive. Smith said she could not pretend he was an honorable man and give him a fond farewell.
“For someone that knew him, and family members that knew him, and to see something on there that was a complete lie, I couldn’t write that in good conscience,” Smith said.
Smith has been getting so much attention for it that supervisors at her job have asked her not to respond and she requested her face be obscured during on-camera interviews.
Smith paid for her father’s cremation because he did not have insurance and describes in the obituary that his ashes will be kept in a bar until the family’s donkey runs out of wood shavings.
“When you don’t talk about it, and you don’t acknowledge the problem even exists, it just grows,” Smith said. “It’s not going to stop until people say this is a problem and talk about it.”
Here is the full text of Charping’s obituary:
col. angus
Best practice? Let it go. My family was not on best of terms with my dad when he passed. I crossed country and paid funeral expenses
Thats what you do.
Airing of grievances are not appropriate. Or just stay away.
I get it. I REALLY get it. However, thank goodness that not all people who are so inclined proceed and have such obits published.
Will Penny: That’s always the way, ain’t it?
Alex: What’s always the way?
Will Penny: Let a man die, right away he’s “good old Claude.”
How was he before he bucked out?
Daughter dearest will live to regret every sentence she uttered. Sounds like a two bit shrink tpld her to express herself. A$$hats.
Oh please, not the obits, too. This will be the most important aspect to leaving retarded cultural Marxism behind — people who don’t feel the need to burden everyone else with their “expression” of how they feel. You can tell this woman isn’t a Christian. There’s a reason we don’t speak ill of our dead relatives in public.
I imagine we could all post a scathing obit for anyone. What would someone say of me? Living in a civilized society keeps us from puking out this kind of trash. At least, it used to.
TOO KIND! The obituary I will leave for my father will be worse.
“Here–FINALLY–lies____________. A bad husband, father, and human being. Had multiple opportunities to be a man, and FAILED with his lazy indifference. Had major surgery, in his elder years, which extended his life another 10+ years, and WASTED IT, being the asshole he always was. A scrooge who horded CASH in a box while his children suffered all through college and beyond. Hardly had a positive word to say to anyone, bitched and complained to every bank teller, store clerk he could get away with. I wish he was alive for 5 more minutes so I could tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey shit he is!”
Can I write my own obit? Right here? 20 years in advance? I hope.
Here goes.
He hated deadbeats and professional malcontents that flew under the false flag of compassion. Didn’t suffer fools of either political party. Never interested in fame or notoriety, a silent worker that advanced the cause of freedom and lawfulness, which ensures a civil society for everyone.
Just an everyday American not unlike any other.
BFH. What an interesting post. Write your own obituary.
I left out my flaws and misdeeds. But those multiple chapters would only serve to titilate and are mostly errors of youth. Back when dick was stronger than brain.
A man who could engender such hatred in his own kinfolk deserves no better, IMHO.
If this obituary provides some catharsis for those who had to endure his presence, so be it.
I would not presume to pass judgment on the family’s behavior unless I had walked a mile in their shoes, and I thank goodness I will never have to.
One of the commenters on his memorial page said “R.I.H.”
Sounds like he might have been acquainted with old Les, too.
😉
Unfortunately, death either brings a family together or; you see a side of bitterness whether or not justified.
It serves no purpose to be bitter other than personal satisfaction, which is short lived (no pun intended). They’re dead, they aren’t going to hear it. It won’t make you feel better 10 years from now.
Just write an obit that says he/she was born/died on, and lived in xyz county/city no matter how horrible you viewed the family member.
Ultimately, that person will see a much greater judge than we can ever understand or profess to be.
Perfectly said Big Gun.
hey, i think i know that guy.
There is this thing called karma, it tends
to bite you in the ass just at the right time.
PHenry, thank you, but your post was spot on as well. On stepping up, “that’s what you do.” Amen.
Over the years, it’s been interesting as to who shows up for dear old mom or dad. There are those that don’t want to take care of them, but they want to get into the house. Nope. You can deal with the county Public Guardian/Public Administrator and go to probate court after disposition of the remains has been taken care of from what is in the estate. That alone usually changes things.
Also, I meant to include in my post above that…, we will also be before Him and plead for His grace at some point as well as those we are in criticism of.
As Red Skelton once said as to why he could always be so jovial, “I don’t take life seriously. I’m not going to get out of it alive.” 😉
I’m sure there are people in my life who would write that I am the nicest guy that ever lived. AND there are some (hopefully only a few), who would say I am an asshole.
Can we get to pick who writes our obituary?
By then I’ll be more concerned with which door St. Peter allows me through.
@Moxie Man “By then I’ll be more concerned with which door St. Peter allows me through.”
I’m afraid that’s when I’ll discover St Peter loves knock-knock jokes 🙂
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.”
the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. If this dead guy was an ass in life he apparently succeeded in passing that trait on to his daughter. No class, no honor, no love. She may have hated her dad but she should look in the mirror.
If he was physically abusive then she should have reported it. There’s a difference.
I am so fortunate that I have a great Dad that I love and that I will miss when he finally passes over the Great Divide.
Good or bad, “It’s Over”.
Musta died with no money in the bank.
Or stocks.
Or bonds.
And probably intestate.
Oh, well.
izlamo delenda est …
Our actions toward our parents teach our children how they should treat us when our time comes.
She’s turned her daddy’s Obit into her own 15 seconds of fame. TV interviews (!), blog posts (including IOTW). Must be enjoying it.
Her own children will have their own grievances against her when her time comes.
Or some two bit therapist will “help” them “discover” their resentments.
Trashy.
“When you got money, you’ve got lots of friends
Crowding round the door
When you’re gone, spending ends
They don’t come no more …”
izlamo delenda est …
Why write a scathing obituary when you could just use a toilet for a tombstone?
And if your father was jeffry dahmer, adolph hitler, pol pot, a 911 terrorist, a pilot who flew a jetliner into the ground, any recent mass shooter, you’d all be like that’s okay just forget it.
What a bunch of self righteous b/s. That’s a really high horse you got there.
Maybe you should be doing something for the victims rather than rant.