Barbara Carlson, former talk radio host, politician and bon vivant, dies at 80

Barbara Carlson, a former Minneapolis City Council member, talk radio host and self-described broad, has died at the age of 80. She was surrounded by family and friends during her last moments Monday.

We all had a lot of alone time with her this morning to hold her and tell her what she meant to us, her daughter Anne posted on Carlsons CaringBridge site. Tucker, Julie, Joe, Allie, Ty, Patt, Gary, Judy, Harriet and I held her, told stories, laughed and wrapped her in love until she took her last breath.

She said everyone should die like this. It was so peaceful and heartbreaking at the same time.

In the end, the return of lung cancer finally did what political opponents and the people she skewered on her radio show and in her books including former governor and ex-husband Arne Carlson could not: Silence someone who seldom hesitated from saying what was on her mind or sharing the intimate details of her life.

Oh my God, I never met anyone like her in my life, said longtime friend Charles Leck, who helped throw a going away party for Carlson at St. Pauls University Club in February after she was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Hundreds attended.She was always an outrageous person, her entire life, he said.

Barbara Duffy was born in Anoka, where her father ran the local lumber yard. In a 2017 story that detailed how shed gone broke after a lifetime of comfort that included live-in help, Carlson said her father treated her lavishly.

My mother almost died giving birth to my younger brother and was bedridden much of time during Carlsons youth, she said. I became my fathers surrogate wife. When he wanted to go out to dinner, hed take me. And we went to nice places where Id wear white gloves.

She added: Ive always just spent. My first words were Charge it.

She married Arne Carlson in 1965. Leck, a former minister, met her in 1968 not long after hed turned down a request from Arne to help him campaign for mayor on Minneapolis North Side. He and Barbara became fast friends; she even introduced him to the woman who would become his wife.

She played Cupid on that one, he said.

In February, Carlson threw herself a party after being diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. The University Club in St. Paul was packed with friends and family.

Anne Carlson said a memorial is being planned.

Ive never known pain like this and our hearts have a huge hole, she wrote on CaringBridge.

James Walsh 612-673-7428