Do news outlets have these sorts of articles queued up when someone starts getting old? Or do the journalists just scramble and get a story together in a matter of hours?
They have them queued. There has been a few were they went out too quick. But in this case, fuck. Knew it was going to happen one day, but still... fuck...
This is correct. They write them, often years, in advance.
Yes, and every now and then, one slips out before the someone actually dies.
There's a word for this type of article: “obituary”.