Delete Row?

I have a table in which I've placed some XML data from my server.
I have a grid that's displaying that data.
I want to delete a specific row.

Here's the code I thought ought to work, but doesn't.

var items = table.getXML().getElementsByTagName("row");
    	var thisItem = items[LISTLOCATOR];
    var before = items.length;
    	thisItem.parentNode.removeChild(thisItem);
     	var items = table.getXML().getElementsByTagName("row");
     	var after = items.length;
     	alert(" count before = " + before + " count after = " + after);

What I find when I run the above is that, yeah, verily, I *am* deleting the row in question. I go from a table with 20 rows to a table with 19 rows. The only problem is that when I call obj.refresh my table, it still draws 20 rows (including the deleted one).

I have other code that successfull modifies the table and updates the grid with new values that works like a champ, so I know that manipulating the DOM tree trickles up to the grid under those circumstances, but I'm stumped as to why it's still drawing the missing row.

I may be wrong, but shouldn't you delete the underlying data and then do the refresh?