Obituary

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An obituary is a notice of the death of a person, usually published in a newspaper, written or commissioned by the newspaper, and usually including a short biography. It is similar to a death notice (also known as a funeral notice), which is also published on the obituary page. A death notice is a paid advertisement written by family members and placed in the newspaper either by the family or the funeral home.

Contents 1 Writing obituaries 2 Content of obituaries 3 Premature obituaries 4 Obituaries in particular publications 5 See also 6 External links and references

Writing obituaries

Because of the short time between the notification of a death and the next publication deadline, most newspapers have one or more writers who specialize in producing obituaries. Sometimes this task is given to a cub reporter (often to allow an editor to evaluate writing and copyreading skills), although today many obituary clerks also have other duties (such as writing news releases and social news). Some newspapers (the UK's Daily Telegraph, for instance) have one or more experienced reporters whose sole job is to write obituaries for notable individuals.

Many news organizations (such as the Associated Press) have on file pre-written obituaries for notable individuals who are still alive; these obituaries are updated when the well-known person dies. Occasionally the author of an obituary will die before its subject. For example, Walter Sullivan's obituary of the noted physicist James Van Allen was published by the AP after Van Allen's death in 2006, even though Sullivan predeceased Van Allen by almost a decade.[1]

In 2006, Bill McDonald of the New York Times answered readers' questions about obituaries as part of the Times's Talk to the Newsroom feature. He confirmed that the Times had over 1,200 obituaries on file, some written as far back as 1982. He also said that the Times's policy was to always give the cause of death when available and, since the publication of a premature obituary for Katharine Sergava, to also always identify the person who advised the newspaper of the death. The hope was that attribution would reduce the chance of another embarrassing and (to the family) painful error. [2]

Content of obituaries

A little bit about their life, their acheivments, why they were famous, and when they died.

Premature obituaries

Main article: List of premature obituaries

By definition, obituaries should always be posthumous. But occasionally obituaries are published, either accidentally or intentionally, while the person concerned is still alive. Most are due to hoaxes, confusions between people with similar names, or the unexpected survival of someone who was close to death. Some others are published because of miscommunication between newspapers, family members and the funeral home, often resulting in embarrassment for everyone involved.

Irish author Brendan Behan said that there is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary. In this regard, some people will seek to have an unsuspecting newspaper editor publish a premature death notice or obituary as a malicious hoax, perhaps to gain revenge on the "deceased". To that end, nearly all newspapers now have policies requiring that death notices come from a reliable source (such as a funeral home), though even this has not stopped some pranksters such as Alan Abel.

Premature obituaries usually occur to famous people, such as Bob Hope or Pope John Paul II. One of the better known premature obituaries of recent years is the August 2001 Daily Telegraph obituary of Dorothy Southworth Ritter, the mother of American television star John Ritter.

Obituaries in particular publications

Obituaries are a notable feature of The Economist, which publishes precisely one full-page obituary per week, reflecting on the subject's life and influence on world history. Past subjects have ranged from Ray Charles to Uday Hussein.

The British Medical Journal encourages doctors to write their own obituaries for publication after their death.

Pan Books publishes a series called The Daily Telegraph Book of Obituaries, which are anthologies of obituaries under a common theme, such as military obituaries, sports obituaries, heroes and adventurers, entertainers, rogues, eccentric lives, etc.

See also

• Eulogy (which should not be confused with an obituary)
• Funeral
• List of premature obituaries
• Lists of people by cause of death
• Recent deaths

External links and references

• I Remember You - free online obituaries
• The Smoking Gun: CNN.com premature obituaries
• The alt.obituaries newsgroup
• Obituaries Research Guide - tips for finding obituaries
• Life in Legacy - online obituaries
• Marilyn Johnson, The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, And The Perverse Pleasure of Obituaries, Harper Perennial, ISBN 0-060758-76-7
• Alana Baranick, Jim Sheerer, and Stephen Miller, Life on the Death Beat: A Handbook for Obituary Writers, Marion Street Press, ISBN 1-933338-02-4

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