Artist Stan Pawlowski poses with his latest creation, a bronze Snoopy sculpture.
Pawlowski finished the piece the night Peanuts creator Charles Schulz died. (AP photo/Damian Dovarganes)
United in sorrow (page 3)
Mayor pushes for "Peanuts" sculpture to honor Charles Schulz
February 16, 2000
By Anne M. Peterson
The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO -- For years, Santa Rosa wanted to honor its most famous resident, Charles M. Schulz. The "Peanuts" creator shunned the plans: No sculpture in his likeness, no street in his name.
The intensely private cartoonist preferred to let his characters speak for him. Before his death, he endorsed plans for a small bronze sculpture of Charlie Brown and his precocious beagle, Snoopy, in a downtown park.
Schulz died Saturday night at 77 after a battle with colon cancer. It was the day before his final "Peanuts" comic strip ran in Sunday newspapers worldwide.
On Tuesday, Santa Rosa Mayor Janet Condron got unanimous support from the City Council for the sculpture in Schulz's honor.
The council will help an effort to raise more than $220,000, $175,000 for the sculpture and $45,000 for 50 miniatures of the sculpture. The city is guaranteeing to make up the difference if the fund drive doesn't meet its target.
If all goes as planned, it will be installed in Railroad Square Park on the 50th anniversary of the comic strip this October.
"We talked with him about possibly doing a sculpture of him with the characters," Condron said. "But he wouldn't have that. For him, it was all about the characters."
Long Beach artist Stan Pawlowski, Schulz's longtime friend, was approached to create the $175,000 artwork. Pawlowski said he was honored.
"My life was greatly enriched by knowing him," Pawlowski said Tuesday. "He did so much for me. He always treated me like a prince."
Schulz, a longtime resident of Santa Rosa, was a fixture at the local skating rink, the Redwood Empire Ice Arena, which he built in 1969.
Most mornings Schulz could be spotted in the arena's snack shop, reading the newspaper, sipping on tea and watching the skaters before heading to his studio nearby.
Late last year, Schulz announced his retirement after being diagnosed with colon cancer. He later suffered a series of small strokes.
Santa Rosa officials had been trying to figure out the proper way to mark the 50th anniversary of the comic strip for about two years before Schulz, known to friends as Sparky, became ill.
Pawlowski said he had discussed plans for the sculpture with Schulz. In addition to a 4-foot-tall "life-sized" Charlie Brown and Snoopy, the work will include a railing featuring some memorable scenes from the comic strip.
"Every part of each character was a different part of him," Pawlowski said.
The work will be raised on a pedestal, and Pawlowski hopes a bench or steps will surround the sculpture, "so that children can get close to it," he said.
The artist, who owns Ski Sculptures in Long Beach, had done other "Peanuts" artwork in the past. On Saturday night, he was finishing a sculpture in honor of Schulz's retirement.
Usually, Pawlowski signs his work with the abbreviation of his name, "Ski." "But for the first time in years, I signed my full name. Later that night, I found out he had passed away," he said.
In San Francisco, 60 miles to the south, a city officials have proposed naming a children's playground "Peanuts Park."
Supervisor Mabel Teng asked the Recreation and Park Department Monday to look at the proposal.
"I want to thank him for the love and joy he brought to the lives of so many San Franciscans," she said.
You're a good Web site, Charlie Brown
February 17, 2000
By Ed Weiner
The Philadelphia Daily News
"Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz -- as well as Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus and all the others who seemed more real to many of us than some of the people we live and work with -- may be gone from this temporal plane (starting to sound like Mulder here), but on the Web they are all alive and well forever ... or as long as the monthly ISP bill gets paid.
For fans of the strip and the man, of kite-eating trees and last-second snatched-away footballs, of beloved red-haired girls and Beethoven played on toy pianos and 5-cent psychiatric advice, there are several terrific Schulz/"Peanuts" pages.
Foremost is the official site, www.snoopy.com (which can also be reached at www.peanuts.com). There, you'll find things to read and do, an archive of strips, a consideration of "Peanuts" as an art form, character profiles and a store for buying memorabilia.
Scott McGuire's Peanuts Animation and Video List, web.mit.edu/smcguire/www/peanuts-animation.html, is an exhaustively thorough compilation of information about every animated version of a "Peanuts" tale.
There are loads of "Peanuts" trivia quizzes at Timothy Chow's site, http://alum.mit.edu/www/tchow.
But just about the best place to read and chat about this greatest of American comic strips (check out the well-done FAQ) is on the Usenet group alt.comics.peanuts. It's all there: grief, good and otherwise.
Schulz memorial: Room for thousands
February 17, 2000
By Chris Smith
Santa Rosa Press Democrat
With no way to tell how many people will attend Monday's memorial celebration for Charles Schulz, organizers are planning a service able to accommodate 2,000 indoors and up to 3,000 outside.
The public memorial at Santa Rosa's Burbank Center for the Arts will start at 11 a.m. To prevent traffic and parking troubles at the center, only cars displaying parking placards for disabled people may park there.
Parking will be provided at two off-site locations: the Santa Rosa Junior College campus on Mendocino Avenue and the new Empire College building on Cleveland Avenue. Starting at 9 a.m. Monday, a fleet of 20 school buses will shuttle people to the Burbank Center.
If more attend than are able to fit in the center's main theater and lobby, the overflow will watch the program on an 11-by-14-foot video screen in the south parking lot. The service also is expected to be broadcast on TV by CNN and other broadcast organizations.
The approximately 90-minute memorial service and a simple reception to follow will celebrate the life and contributions of Schulz, who was 77 when he died Saturday night at his Santa Rosa home. The globally renowned creator of the "Peanuts" comic strip lived in Sonoma County since he left his native Minnesota for a country home outside of Sebastopol in 1958.
Schulz was buried Thursday at Sebastopol's Pleasant Hills Cemetery after a private family funeral service.
An Army honor guard fired a 15-gun salute for Schulz, who all his life was proud to have served as machine-gun squad leader in World War II, and the honor guard's commander presented Jeannie Schulz with the American flag that had covered her husband's casket.
The Schulz family, including the cartoonist's five children and two stepchildren, will join cartoonists, dignitaries and members of the public at Monday's memorial.
Buses donated by Laidlaw Transit will begin shuttling people from SRJC and Empire College at 9 a.m. There will be one pickup point at Empire College and two at the junior college: at the large parking lot on Mendocino Avenue at Pacific Avenue, and behind the cafeteria on Elliott Avenue.
"Both the schools are closed Monday (for Presidents' Day) so the lots will be empty," said Burbank Center director Claudia Haskell. Parking at both schools will be free.
A longtime friend of the Schulzes, Blake Norton of New Jersey, will oversee the three-camera team that will produce the live video feed that will appear on the outdoor screen and also will be distributed to TV stations and networks.
Norton, chief audio engineer on "Sesame Street," said Wednesday that two cameras inside the Burbank Center theater will follow the program on the stage and a third will train on audience members as they step to microphones to share memories of Schulz.
The program also will include pre-recorded appearances by people unable to travel to Santa Rosa to address the crowd. Norton said that in one of the pre-recorded presentations, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Taafe Zwilich will play selections from the "Peanuts" suite that premiered at New York's Carnegie Hall in 1997.
Norton, whose wife, Judy Slatky, has for 30 years worn the Snoopy suit and performed everywhere from the White House to the annual Christmas show at Schulz's Santa Rosa ice arena, said CNN has said it will broadcast the program. Other stations and networks may carry it as well.
A reception will follow the memorial celebration, with guests invited to enjoy cookies and root beer -- Snoopy's favorite beverage -- in the lobby and under tents outside the center.
Buses will take people back to SRJC and Empire College between 12:30 and 2:30 p.m.
About 40 members of Schulz's family bid farewell to the shy but world-famous cartoonist at the private service midday Thursday in Sebastopol. Officiating at the chapel and graveside service was Father George Lombardi, a close friend and golfing buddy of Schulz. Lombardi also will take part in Monday's memorial service.
Schulz is survived by his wife, Jeannie; daughters Jill Transki of Santa Rosa, Meredith Hodges of Colorado and Amy Johnson of Utah; sons Craig Schulz of Santa Rosa and Monte Schulz of Santa Rosa; stepson Brooke Clyde of Santa Rosa; stepdaughter Lisa Clyde Brockway of Oregon; and 18 grandchildren.
The Schulzes suggest memorial contributions in his memory to Bill Mauldin WWII Cartoon Gallery Endowment at the National D-Day Memorial Foundation, P.O. Box 77, Bedford, Va. 24523.
Schulz two years ago donated $1 million to the memorial and served as national chairman of the foundation that is working to create a D-Day monument in Virginia.
Perfect end for Charlie Brown, gang
February 18, 2000
By Lee Benson
The Deseret News
Charles Schulz died this week, proving yet again that nothing great lasts forever, not even characters who never age like Charlie Brown, Lucy Van Pelt, Peppermint Patty, Schroeder, Snoopy, Woodstock, Linus, the Little Red-haired Girl, et al.
Schulz took them with him, and rightly so. They were together for 50 years.
My favorite "Peanuts" character? That would be Snoopy. I always agreed with what Snoopy was thinking, lying there on top of his dog house. Smartest beagle I ever saw.
My least favorite? Charlie Brown himself. I liked Charlie, but rooting for him was like rooting for the Cubs, the Red Sox and the Washington Generals.
From what I read, as the tributes pour in from around the world about Charles Schulz, master cartoonist, I'm told that was the whole point. Charlie Brown -- or "Chuck," as Peppermint Patty called him -- was the epitome of the art of losing. Everybody loses, some time or another. Charlie Brown, a good man, lost every week and still hung in there.
I don't know about that. All I know is "Peanuts" was a comic strip. If I'd ever thought it had some serious undertone I was supposed to grasp, I'd have avoided it like I avoided "Prince Valiant."
I never gave one thought to the psychoanalysis of it all until people started dissecting it this week -- trying to make sense of a phenomenon that lasted nearly 50 years, was syndicated in 2,620 newspapers worldwide and translated into 21 languages.
Wonder what Snoopy would think about that.
Wonder what he'd think about that in Mandarin.
For me the strip hit its high point on July 12, 1965.
That's the day Snoopy lugged a typewriter to the roof of his dog house and launched his career as a writer. In the fourth frame he pecks out his opening line: "It was a dark and stormy night."
In the fateful final strip that ran last Sunday, barely hours after Schulz died in his sleep, there was Snoopy, still at it.
Opening frame: Charlie Brown on the phone, saying, "No, I think he's writing..."
Next frame: Snoopy on top of the dog house, pecking out: "Dear Friends..."
Bottom frame: Charles Schulz writes a letter of appreciation for being able to bring Charlie Brown, Lucy, Snoopy and all the rest to us for the past half-century.
Schulz's passing leaves a void, but it's difficult to do much wailing and lamenting over a life spent doing exactly what you dreamed you'd do.
Once, when Schulz was asked why he refused to retire, he replied, "You don't work all your life to get to do something so that you can have time not to do it."
No wonder Snoopy was so smart.
It was the late sports columnist Jim Murray who once summed up the curious mind-set of those lucky enough to work in the deadline-oriented world of newspaper columnists and cartoonists.
When Murray was asked if he ever wrote an extra column to keep in reserve, just in case, the sports writer replied, "What, and die one ahead?!"
Charles Schulz went out perfect, neither one ahead nor one behind.
There's a kind of poetry in that. He signed off and then he signed out, taking the neighborhood with him, unresolved plot lines and all -- with Charlie Brown still looking for his baseball team's first win, with Lucy still dispensing psychiatric help for five cents and wondering if Schroeder would ever stop thinking of Beethoven, with Marcie still calling Peppermint Patty "Sir," with Linus still hanging onto that blanket, with Woodstock flying nose first into the dog house and with Snoopy dreaming of shooting down the Red Baron and writing a best-seller about it.
Now, I hope he does just that.
Minnesota to honor "Peanuts" creator with flags at half-staff
February 18, 2000
The Associated Press
ST. PAUL -- "Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz will be honored at all state buildings on Monday, Gov. Jesse Ventura said Friday.
Ventura has ordered flags lowered to half-staff in memory of Schulz, the St. Paul native who died Feb. 13 at his home in Santa Rosa, Calif. Schulz, 77, died the day before the finale of his long-running comic strip appeared in newspapers around the world.
Ventura noted in his proclamation that Schulz was born in Minneapolis, grew up in St. Paul and wrote his first feature comic for the Saint Paul Pioneer Press.
The proclamation adds that Schulz's "spirit and sense of fun" will live on in reprints for years to come.
Rainy day forecast for Schulz memorial
February 18, 2000
By Chris Smith
Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Rain clouds and a large crowd both are possibilities for Monday's public memorial service honoring "Peanuts'' cartoonist Charles Schulz.
North Bay residents who don't want to miss the service at Santa Rosa's Burbank Center for the Arts but are leery of the weather or crowd may tune in to live radio and TV broadcasts.
The approximately 90-minute celebration of Schulz's life will be carried live on KFTY-Channel 50. At least two Sonoma County radio stations -- KSRO and KZST -- will broadcast the audio portion of the service.
Shortly after the service ends, the entire video will be available for viewing on The Press Democrat's Web page, www.pressdemo.com.
Officials of CNN in San Francisco and Atlanta said Thursday the network will cover the memorial service as a news event, but does not plan to carry the entire program live.
Schulz, 77, creator of the comics page's universally recognized Charlie Brown gang and by far Sonoma County's most prominent resident, died Saturday night at his Santa Rosa home from complications of cancer.
Especially because schools and many workplaces will be closed Monday, the Presidents Day holiday, the memorial celebration could attract thousands of people.
Organizers and the staff of the Burbank Center say they will be prepared for as many as 5,000 people: 2,000 inside the LBC's main theater and lobby, and 3,000 outside in the center's south parking lot.
If there are people who cannot be accommodated indoors, they will watch a live video of the program on an 11-foot by 14-foot screen that will placed in the LBC's lot.
People planning to attend the celebration should be prepared for rain.
Forecasters said Thursday that a chance of showers will persist throughout the morning on Monday. The National Weather Service said there's a 30 percent chance of showers between about 4 a.m. and 10 a.m.
The Schulz memorial is set to begin at 11 a.m., but people are expected to begin arriving shortly after 9 a.m.
Only people with disabled-parking placards on their cars will be allowed to park at the Burbank Center.
Off-site parking will be provided at Santa Rosa Junior College on Mendocino Avenue and at the new Empire College building on Cleveland Avenue at Russell Avenue. A fleet of donated school buses will begin shuttling people from the colleges to Burbank Center at 9 a.m.
Memorial service information
When: 11 a.m. Monday, February 21
Where: Burbank Center for the Arts, 50 Mark West Springs Road, off Highway 101 north of Santa Rosa
Who: Open to the public
Parking: Only the handicapped and media may park at the Burbank Center. The public can park for free at any lot at Santa Rosa Junior College on Mendocino Avenue or at Empire College, 3035 Cleveland Ave. Shuttle buses will run from 9 to 10:30 a.m. from Empire College and from two spots at SRJC: the large lot on Mendocino Avenue at Pacific Avenue, and behind the cafeteria on Elliott Avenue.
Reception: A simple, cookie-and-root-beer reception will follow the service, from about 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.
Return ride:Buses will take people back to SRJC and Empire College from 12:20 to about 2:30 p.m.
Tribune Part of Schulz Tribute
February 20, 2000
By Connie Coyne
The Salt Lake Tribune
Those checking the paid obituaries in newspapers across the country on Saturday or today might have been surprised to see a 10-1/2-column-inch-long notice on cartoonist Charles Monroe Schulz, the creator of the comic strip "Peanuts."
Schulz, who died last Saturday night, only hours before his last original strip appeared in Sunday papers, was buried during private services in Sebastopol, California, during the past week. But the paid notice in 50 or 60 newspapers -- including The Salt Lake Tribune -- that carried the world-famous comic announced a memorial service to be held Monday at 11 a.m. at the Santa Rosa, California, Luther Burbank Center.
While the obituary was written by the family and featured the personal remembrances of the Schulz children, the bill for running the notice in the four or five dozen dailies was paid by the United Feature Syndicate, the company that distributed the "Peanuts" strip for years and will continue to distribute the reruns of the 50 years of daily and Sunday panels.
"Newspapers have been good to Charlie Schulz and Schulz was good to newspapers," said John Mathews, who works for United Features in Seattle.
In lieu of flowers at the memorial service, the notice asked for donations to the Bill Mauldin World War II Cartoon Art Gallery Endowment in care of the National D-Day Memorial Foundation, PO Box 77, Beford, Va., 24523.
Schulz was a veteran of World War II, a fact often reflected in Snoopy the beagle's vivid fantasies of fighting World War I German ace pilot, the Red Baron.
The announcement of Schulz's death last weekend brought a flood of memorial tributes from the nation's editorial cartoonists, editorial writers and columnists who noted the artist's ability to use deceptively simple lines to convey the deep emotions he found in the wins and losses of life.
