List of Premature Obituaries - T

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• Margaret Thatcher: Text-message reports of Thatcher's death caused a stir at a Canadian political event, and officials in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office were preparing to issue a statement of condolence, until it was determined that the deceased Thatcher in question was actually Transport Minister John Baird's cat.
• Orlando Thomas: A former professional football player afflicted with Lou Gehrig's Disease, Thomas was incorrectly reported as dead by the official website of the Minnesota Vikings, his former team, on October 28, 2009. The story of Thomas's death was then picked up and re-reported by various news services, including the Associated Press.
• András Toma: Hungarian POW in World War II, was captured in early 1945 and was declared dead in 1954. He was found in 2000 and returned home. He died in 2004.
• Donald Walter Trautman (Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Erie, Pennsylvania) was reported dead in the 4 April 2007 edition of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano; in fact it was his predecessor Bishop Michael Murphy who had just died. "I told people that there was an early resurrection," Trautman said. The Tablet printed a cartoon about the incident, depicting one angel at a reception desk telling another: "Bishop Trautman's just e-mailed us with a cancellation."
• Stephanie Tubbs Jones: The Cleveland, Ohio, congresswoman was incorrectly reported as having died 20 August 2008 after suffering an aneurysm. The report prompted an official statement from John Kerry mourning her death. Tubbs Jones did however, die later that day.
• Thuy Trang: who rose to fame in the mid-1990s playing Trini Kwan/The Yellow Ranger in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, was incorrectly reported dead following an automobile accident in 1997. Ironically, Trang did subsequently die in a car accident, four years later.
• Mark Twain: on two occasions the writer was incorrectly feared dead. Though only the second case counts as a premature obituary, the first is often erroneously cited as the most famous case:

1. In 1897 a journalist was sent to enquire after Twain's health, thinking he was near to death; in fact it was his cousin who was very ill. Though (contrary to popular belief) no obituary was published, Twain recounted the event in the New York Journal of 2 June 1897, including his famous words "The report of my death was an exaggeration" (which is usually misquoted, e.g. as "The rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated", or "Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated").
2. On 4 May 1907, when people lost track of a yacht he was travelling on, the New York Times published an article saying he might have been lost at sea. In fact, the yacht had been held up by fog, and Twain had disembarked. Twain read the article, and cleared up the story by writing a humorous account in the New York Times the following day.

Twain died in 1910.

• Tights: 'Tights' the famous Derry street crooner was feared to have passed away until it was reported in the Derry News that he was still alive and well.: