An obituary is a news article that reports the recent death of a person, typically along
with an account of the person's life and information about the upcoming funeral. In large cities
and larger newspapers, obituaries are written only for people considered significant. In
local newspapers, an obituary may be published for any local resident upon death. A necrology
is a register or list of records of the deaths of people related to a particular organization,
group or field, which may only contain the sparsest details, or small obituaries. Historical
necrologies can be important sources of information. Two types of paid advertisements are related
to obituaries. One, known as a death notice, omits most biographical details and may be
a legally required public notice under some circumstances. The other type, a paid memorial
advertisement, is usually written by family members or friends, perhaps with assistance
from a funeral home. Both types of paid advertisements are usually run as classified advertisements.
Premature obituaries
A premature obituary is a false reporting of the death of a person that is still alive.
It may occur due to unexpected survival of someone who was close to death. Other reasons
for such publication might be 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 dying
in a toilet. 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, though even this has not stopped some pranksters
such as Alan Abel. Media
Many news organisations have pre-written obituaries on file for notable individuals who are still
living, allowing detailed, authoritative, and lengthy obituaries to appear very quickly
after their death. The Los Angeles Times '​ obituary of Elizabeth Taylor, for example,
was written in 1999 after three months of research, then often updated before the actress'
2011 death. Sometimes the prewritten obituary's subject outlives its author; an example is
The New York Times' obituary of Taylor, written by the newspaper's theater critic Mel Gussow,
who died in 2005. Obituaries are a notable feature of The Economist,
which publishes 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. For numerous summer seasons, CBC Radio One
has run The Late Show, a radio documentary series which presents extended obituaries
of interesting Canadians. See also
Eulogy Funeral
List of premature obituaries Lists of people by cause of death
Lists of deaths by year References
Further reading Baranick, Alana; Sheeler, Jim; Miller, Stephen.
Life on the Death Beat: A Handbook for Obituary Writers. Oak Park: Marion Street Press. ISBN 1-933338-02-4.
Johnson, Marilyn. The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, And The Perverse Pleasure of
Obituaries. New York: Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-06-075876-7. Massingberd, Hugh. Daydream Believer: Confessions
of a Hero-Worshipper. London: Macmillan. p. 245. ISBN 0-333-69287-X.
External links Newspaper Obituaries - ObituariesHelp.org
Newspaper Obituaries Obituaries Research Guide Tips for finding
obituaries