diff --git a/src/sage/dsage/dsage.py b/src/sage/dsage/dsage.py
index 884242b986d..aa9e07e6698 100644
--- a/src/sage/dsage/dsage.py
+++ b/src/sage/dsage/dsage.py
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ def spawn(cmd, verbose=True, stdout=None, stdin=None):
     if verbose:
         print 'Spawned %s (pid = %s)\n' % (' '.join(cmdl), process.pid)
 
-    return process.pid
+    return process
 
 
 class DistributedSage(object):
@@ -174,17 +174,19 @@ def kill_all(self):
         self.kill_worker()
         self.kill_server()
 
-
     def kill_worker(self):
         try:
-            os.kill(self.worker_pid, 9)
+            os.kill(self.worker_proc.pid, 9)
+            self.worker_proc.wait()
+            del self.worker_proc
         except OSError, msg:
             print 'Error killing worker: %s' % msg
 
-
     def kill_server(self):
         try:
-            os.kill(self.server_pid, 9)
+            os.kill(self.server_proc.pid, 9)
+            self.server_proc.wait()
+            del self.server_proc
         except OSError, msg:
             print 'Error killing server: %s' % msg
 
@@ -248,7 +250,7 @@ def write_tac(tac):
             except:
                 pass
             cmd += '--logfile=%s -y dsage_server.tac' % (log_file)
-            server_pid = spawn(cmd, verbose=verbose)
+            self.server_proc = spawn(cmd, verbose=verbose)
             # Need the following hack since subprocess.Popen reports the wrong
             # pid when launching an application with twistd
             while True:
@@ -288,7 +290,7 @@ def worker(self, server='localhost', port=8081, workers=2, poll=1.0,
         if not blocking:
             cmd += ' --noblock'
             cmd = 'python ' + SAGE_ROOT + '/local/bin/' + cmd
-            self.worker_pid = spawn(cmd, verbose=verbose)
+            self.worker_proc = spawn(cmd, verbose=verbose)
         else:
             cmd = 'python ' + SAGE_ROOT + '/local/bin/' + cmd
             os.system(cmd)
diff --git a/src/sage/dsage/interface/dsage_interface.py b/src/sage/dsage/interface/dsage_interface.py
index baee5643646..66bafa1d2a8 100644
--- a/src/sage/dsage/interface/dsage_interface.py
+++ b/src/sage/dsage/interface/dsage_interface.py
@@ -868,4 +868,4 @@ def handler(signum, frame):
             while self.status != 'completed':
                 time.sleep(1.0)
                 self.get_job()
-            signal.alarm(0)
\ No newline at end of file
+            signal.alarm(0)
diff --git a/src/sage/dsage/tests/testdoc.py b/src/sage/dsage/tests/testdoc.py
index 7f4cb320c43..58e8ee035a5 100644
--- a/src/sage/dsage/tests/testdoc.py
+++ b/src/sage/dsage/tests/testdoc.py
@@ -38,4 +38,12 @@
     True
     sage: t.result # long time
     15
+
+    The following code block makes sure that things exit cleanly
+
+    sage: dsage.kill_all()
+    sage: from twisted.internet import reactor
+    sage: reactor.callFromThread(reactor.stop)
+    sage: d._dsage_thread.join()
+    [DSage] Closed connection to localhost
 """
\ No newline at end of file