Man who cut a wide swath gets a frank, widely read obituary

James Loveless's obit photo

From the beginning, readers knew that the obituary of James Loveless was not the usual tribute. It read in part, "Jamie, a divorcee, father, grandfather and proud owner of a few lots in the trailer park, had had enough and up and died on us on June 14." It said he had "clogged his arteries" with fried foods, chili dogs and snack cakes, and when he had a stroke in 2015, "in the ER at the hospital, he was heard saying, 'Let's make a break for it!'"

Perhaps the most remarkable passages were: "We don't know if he was married, but he definitely was a lady's man. There was Kathy, Mary Lou, Tammy, Debra, Carrie, Tina, etc., etc.," then designating favorite and "second favorite" sons and concluding, "He will be moderately missed."

“All of those women’s names, those are all women that really happened,” Rocky Loveless told Michael Berk of Lexington's WLEX-TV. “He would’ve liked for people to talk about the fun stuff.” Berk reports, "Rocky was told by the people at the Pulaski Funeral Home that his obituary generated more page views for them than the home has ever had before."

As for the obit's closing line, anchor Marvin Bartlett of Lexington's WDKY-TV told viewers, "It's obvious by reading the sons' social media posts that they loved their dad."

James Loveless's body was cremated. A barbecue was held in his honor Saturday.