Kathleen Dehmlow died "and will now face judgement (sic)," the notice said.

"She will not be missed by Gina and Jay, and they understand that this world is a better place without her."

As the obituary spread across the internet and drew upset responses, the twice-weekly Gazette removed the online version from its website. Lisa Drafall, general manager of the Gazette, said that the family paid for the obituary. Drafall declined to say more, other than it was taken down on Tuesday.

This uproar has prompted legacy.com, a global online obituary website based in Evanston, Illinois, to review its standards and not just lean on the newspapers that feed it.

"Because the content standards of our newspaper partners are extremely high, we haven't needed to implement independent standards in this area," CEO and founder Stopher Bartol said in a statement Tuesday. "That said, we take very seriously the trust placed in us by our partners and the families we together serve, and we will review and re-evaluate our procedures as necessary."

Mark Anfinson, attorney for the Minnesota Newspaper Association, said, "This kind of trashing of a decedent doesn't happen very often," but there is nothing illegal about what was published.

Minnesota law doesn't allow libel lawsuits on behalf of the deceased, Anfinson said.

One relative said the facts in the obituary are true, but "there is a lot of stuff that is missing."

Dwight Dehmlow, who lives in the area, said, "The sad thing about this is there is no rebuttal. There is more to it than this. It's not simple."

Dehmlow, who declined to specify his relationship to Kathleen, said she had lived in a nursing home for the past year, and her sisters were there when she died.

"She made a mistake 60 years ago, but who hasn't?" he said. "Has she regretted it over the years? Yes."

Contact information for Jay and his sister Gina was not available Tuesday.

The obit writer "decided to go out with hate," Dwight Dehmlow said "This is going to hurt a lot of people."

TNS