Chain smoker lived with 'gusto'

Friends of Margaret Madigan were asked to put aside the social norms of the day and "bring their smokes" to a memorial service Tuesday as a way of remembering the 66-year-old Minneapolis woman, who was known for her big laugh and being a world-class chain smoker.

But just before the service began, the Rev. Amy Luukkonen sternly told mourners "any lighting up will have to be done outside."

Madigan's paid obituary, written by professional advertising copywriter Ryan Peck and published in Monday's Star Tribune, defies the fate handed to the millions of American smokers, who have been pushed out of their workplaces and targeted for billions in tax revenue with each pack purchased.

The obituary described Madigan as "one of the world's great chain smokers. Permanently dangling from the corner of her always-smiling mouth, cigarette after cigarette would hold on for dear life as great, gravely bursts of irresistible, irrepressible laughter exploded out of her. ... Come to the memorial, bring your smokes, and help us get started."

Madigan died March 22 as a result of complications from a stroke several years ago.

Peck, a friend of Madigan's who works for Fallon Worldwide in Minneapolis, said he included her smoking habit "because it was so much a part of her. She used each cigarette to light the next one. But so what?"

He said that the gravelly voice "she ended up with probably had something to do with that. It was Suzanne Pleshette times 600."

No one smoked at the service for Madigan at the Augustana Nursing Home in Minneapolis. But Steve Morice said he wore a tie with Tabasco insignias because, "I don't smoke, but whatever Margaret did she did it with gusto and spice."

He said she had a stride that would make an Olympic power-walker jealous. Others recalled how she liked to play the piano, mow the lawn, dress up and put on red lipstick when she went out. And she did enjoy a smoke.

"We embraced her," said Kristina Kliber, of St. Paul and a longtime friend of Madigan's. Kliber's husband first met Madigan about 15 years ago on a walk with his new puppy. Kliber said her son, Owen, "would call her Grandma Margaret."

Kliber and her husband, Keith Koch, arranged the service for Madigan, who had long fought various psychological problems, among them bipolar disorder.

Luukkonen said in her homily that Madigan "taught us how to be fully human despite of our quirks and foibles. To those who came today, thank you, because Christ talked about loving people that others disdain. Without you, she might have been somebody who would not have been remembered."

Madigan's other friends "were always trying to get her to quit, but it was who she was," Kliber said, adding that unfiltered Camels were her preferred brand. "Smoking was a conversation starter. You'd often find her in a little patio area [at the nursing home] sitting outside in her chair, sitting there for hours."

Star Tribune staff writer Tim Harlow contributed to this report. Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482