It happens.

People with celebrity status, people who have achieved a degree of fame in science, music, politics - they die.

And sometimes, a couple of them die within hours, or days of each other.

"People have been slipping out of this world in occupational clusters, I've noticed, for years," says Marilyn Johnson, author of "The Dead Beat."

One of the most intriguing of the early departing duos was former Presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, who died hours apart - Jefferson at his Monticello home in Virginia, Adams in Quincy, Mass. - on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Among the latest, you know, is Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett, who died hours apart June 25.

Johnson, who has tracked this phenomenon for years, began by reading obits a couple of decades ago in the New York Times, when she was an editor in New York.

On Oct. 25, 1986, it caught her attention that the Times had side-by-side obituaries for (1) the scientist who isolated vitamin C and (2) the scientist who isolated vitamin K. Both were Nobel Prize winners.

"I couldn't believe it," she said in a phone interview. "I still can't get over it."

The Times editors liked to highlight those coincidences, she said, and she developed quite an appreciation for it: like the two Medal of Honor winners from different eras, who both had saved fellow marines. And two who had made careers of doing the voices of Winnie the Pooh characters - one Tigger, the other Piglet.

It just takes a little careful reading of the obits, Johnson says.

Some are obvious.

Princess Diana (Aug. 31, 1997) and Mother Teresa (Sept. 5, 1997).

Authors Aldous Huxley and C. S. Lewis (Nov. 22, 1963), who were joined by President John F. Kennedy (also an author).

James Brown (Dec. 25, 2006) and former President Gerald Ford (Dec. 26, 2006).

Pope John Paul II, head of the smallest kingdom in the world, the Vatican (April 2, 2005), and Prince Rainier, head of the second smallest kingdom in the world, Monaco (April 6, 2005).

Milton Berle, Dudley Moore and Billy Wilder (March 27, 2002).

Hunter S. Thompson and Sandra Dee (Feb. 20, 2005).

Surely it cannot all be chance, Johnson wrote in her book. These are mystical forces that can be found almost weekly in obituary sections, or in the case of celebrities, the front page and all other forms of media.

According to the writers of "Postmortem," a Washington Post blog about "the end of the story," obituaries have become increasingly popular, in newspapers and online. There are Internet discussion groups, such as alt.obits, a Google group.

You can become a fan of the Washington Post obituary desk on Facebook.

Obits provide insights into culture, politics, science, the arts, business and people's peculiar pursuits, the bloggers say.

"For those of us who write them, obituaries are never morbid because they focus on the endlessly fascinating ways people choose to live their lives," they say.

Those who make a daily pastime of reading obituaries, like Johnson, find all kinds of pairings who die hours or days apart. Her list includes veteran wire service photographers; a professor of theology, a priest and a nun; a Hollywood hairdresser, costume designer and caterer.

Last week, actors Mollie Sugden (British) and Karl Malden ("Streets of San Francisco") died Wednesday, following Harve Presnell ("The Unsinkable Mollie Brown," "Fargo") on Tuesday.

Coincidences are bound to happen, Johnson said. Our minds gravitate toward connections. We use those connections to explain the unexpected, those deaths that cause a disturbance in the universe, like Michael Jackson and Princess Diana.

"When we're not prepared, it shakes us up," she said.

Death is fascinating, but unnerving. We take notice. We wait to hear something, read something, that can distance us from it.

"You rush to say all the reasons that person died instead of you," Johnson said.

Too many prescription drugs.

Put in a dangerous situation by someone else.

Or just, as Johnson and others believe, part of some grand cosmic plan.

Reach JoAnne Young at 473-7228 or jyoung@journalstar.com.