I was shocked he died the night before the last strip...hard to believe. I am glad I caught the tv specials with Charles Cronkite and the one on Nightline...

Peanuts was a big part of my life. My older brother collected the books of strips, he had literally dozens of them! (He also collected BC, Wizard of Id, and later Doonesbury). And one of my favorite childhood movie memories was going to see "Snoopy Come Home" and laughing and crying through the whole thing...

I played Lucy in a dinner theatre production of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" in college. What was the role I was most remembered for in those four years by my peers and professors and audiences? Not The Maid in _The Bald Soprano_. Not Millie in _Picnic_. ? Not St. Joan. Not Rosalind. Lucy...

A difficult role, despite the show's simplicity. Lucy's songs are written in a very high range and sound silly when sung with soprano stylings. But hitting those notes was very hard cuz they fall right on most female singers' "break" between chest and head voice. I saw it once years earlier and was disappointed that Lucy coudl not cut the mustard, and when I was cast vowed I would deliver a Lucy with proper "yell factor" in her songs. I worked very hard to get a brassy, clear sound that never went into head voice. I had a whole month, fortunately, and only almost lost my voice once.

We had a great time doing that show. Since it was so simple and easy to memorize, we spent a fair amount of time playing around with it, even switching roles at rehearsal a few times. (playing Snoopy was fun!) Our Schroeder was actually a pianist, and, though it does not occur in the show, he learned the funky dance song by Vince Guaraldi and played it as our entrance music after intermission...the crowd went wild as we danced like the cartoon characters, or tried to...

i stopped reading the daily strip in recent years, because The Globe does not carry it. But I always loved running across old ones, or seeing the tv specials. I imagine there will now be a rush on Peanuts memorabilia...whch i have mixed feelings about. I must ask my brother if he still has all those books...

peg