Juror Flirting With John Edwards
Obama's Pot-Smoking Detailed
New York Times reporter Mel Gussow died in 2005 after a battle with cancer. The Times ran his Elizabeth Taylor obituary today along with this note: "Mel Gussow, the principal writer of this article, died in 2005. William McDonald and William Grimes contributed updated reporting."
It's common for newspapers to prepare obituaries about famous people before their death, and it isn't unheard of for the author of an obituary to die first. "Oftentimes those obits just sit around for years and years and sometimes the people who wrote them are gone before the celebrity. It's one of the tricky things about writing advance obituaries," Alana Baranick, the director of the Society of Professional Obituary Writers and the author of "Life on the Death Beat: a Handbook for Obituary Writers," told AOL News by phone.
Baranick says this kind of thing has happened before. In 2009, Gayle Ronan Sims, a friend of Baranick's and a reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer, wrote an advance obituary of famed TV personality Ed McMahon. Then, Sims died after a lung transplant two months before the death of McMahon himself. "Her time came first," Baranick said.
Sponsored Links
Gussow, of course, could not have predicted Taylor would outlive him by six years. But he did, however, note that Taylor -- who once told Vanity Fair she had been pronounced dead four times and had read a number of obituaries about her life -- was a survivor.
"During a lifetime of emotional and physical setbacks, life-threatening illnesses and accidents, and several near-death experiences, Ms. Taylor was a survivor," Gussow wrote, sometime before her death and his own.
Romney Argues Big Spending Cuts Would Cause 'Depression,' Contrary To Tea Party Activists
Scott Walker, Tom Barrett Face Off In First Wisconsin Recall Debate
A New Murdoch Scandal Emerges
7 Ways To Get Yourself Detained Indefinitely
Brother Of Chinese Dissident Reportedly Missing
Devils Down Rangers, Headed To Stanley Cup Finals
Pope's Butler Arrested In Embarrassing Scandal
The Mortgage Mess: Just How Many Screwups Were There?
GOP Governor Signs Bill Banning Islamic Law
The Story Behind Clinton's Porn Star Picture
Pedro Hernandez Charged In Etan Patz Death
Scott Walker Recall Race May Be Tightening
WATCH: Fox News Besieged By Technical Difficulties
Romney To Pay More In Taxes?
Cory Booker Goes Off Message, Everyone Freaks For A Week: The Speculatron Weekly Round-Up
Joe Biden Recalls Thoughts Of Suicide
More Trouble For Rick Scott
Police: Indiana Gunman Who Held Hostages Shot Self In Head
JPMorgan Risk Committee Missing People With Experience Monitoring Risk
GOP Congressional Candidate Accuses Opponent Of Spying On Campaign
Geologists Confirm Possible Jesus Crucifixion Date
Tom Coburn Gets Big Penalty From Fellow Senators
What Bin Laden's Wives Revealed
