List of Premature Obituaries - F

F

• Frederick Fane, cricketer, reported in Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1956 edition as having died on 9 December 1954. The 1961 edition reported his real death, aged 85, on 27 November 1960, saying: "Owing to a similarity of initials, Wisden reported his death when he was 79. The man concerned was Francis L. Fane, his cousin. By a coincidence, Mr Fane's father also once read his own obituary."
• Frederick John Fane (cricketer), father of Frederick Fane (see above). According to Wisden 1961, he too suffered a premature obituary, though no details were given.
• Dorothy Fay (film actress, also called Dorothy Southworth Ritter), was declared dead in an August 2001 Daily Telegraph obituary. Mrs Ritter, who lived in a nursing home, had been taken to another room temporarily when a friend stopped by to visit. On hearing that Mrs Ritter was "gone", the friend telephoned the Telegraph obituary editor. Fay died in November 2003.
• Will Ferrell (comedian), reported by iNewswire to have died in a paragliding accident in March 2006. The press release was a hoax; Ferrell has never been paragliding.
• Terry L. Fergerson, a teacher from West Monroe, New York, US, was thought to have died in May 2006 when Terry L. Ferguson (differently spelled last name) was killed in a vehicle collision. When Fergerson arrived at work the following day, he found fellow teachers and students consoling each other over his death; various friends and relatives also thought he had died. It is not clear whether the confusion was made by them, local media or the police. In addition to their similar names, Fergerson and the real victim both drove red Chevy pickups and were of similar age. "I don't know what the percentages are, I'm not a mathematician, but it's pretty far out", Fergerson said.
• Sebastiao Fidelis: a Brazilian man whose supposed body was identified by his wife and buried in 2001 after he had been missing for two months. A year later, he was found wandering in the area, having lost his memory.
• Gerald Ford (former US President) in the CNN.com incident. Also, comedian Dana Carvey used Ford as an example when satirizing pre-prepared obituaries in a Saturday Night Live sketch in which he impersonated Tom Brokaw on NBC Nightly News. Ford died in December 2006.