People clip and save obituaries as family records. They don’t want anything to be wrong in them, and you don’t either. Check the spelling of all names, dates and places and be willing to stake your life on their being correct.You don't want to be referred to as a writer "with a history of errors wrote hastily and failed to double-check her work" as this reporter was in this The New York Times column.
The article also accurately describes how hectic and prone to error the editing process can be.
Best way to avoid being trashed in that process? Be your own best editor. And fact checker.
Go over your work carefully before turning it in. Print out your story and underline every fact in it (names, dates, time elements). Double check all of them against your notes or reference materials (not Wikipedia) and put a "done" mark of some kind beside them. Make all corrections in the article. Read it again for continuity (did changes in time elements mess up any chronological story-telling you did?)
Turn in your story.
Rest easy.
