Charles M. Schulz

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Charles Monroe Schulz was the famous American cartoonist who created the well-known comic/ T.V. show, "Peanuts".

On November 26, 1922 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Dena Halverson and Carl Schulz gave birth to their first and only child, Charles Monroe Schulz. His father, Carl Schulz, was born in Germany and his mother, Dena Halverson, was Norwegian. His uncle called him, "Sparky" after the horse in Billy DeBeck's comic strip, "Barney Google". Schulz loved to draw. He sometimes drew his family dog, "Spike", who ate weird things such as pins and tacks. (artcollection.mycrom.it) In 1937, Schulz drew a picture of Spike and sent it to "Ripley's Believe It or Not!"(wikipedia.org) The picture was put into Robert Ripley's combined panel with the caption: "A hunting dog that eats pins, tacks and razor blades is owned by C.F. Schulz, St. Paul, Minn. and 'Drawn by Sparky'". Schulz went to Richards Gordon Elementary School in St. Paul. He ended up skipping two half-grades. He was said to be "shy" and "timid" as a teenager. It might have been because he was the youngest in his class at Central High School. During his time in high school, he entered some of his drawings to his high school yearbook, but they got rejected. 60 years later, a 5-foot statue of "Snoopy" was placed in the school's main office.

In February 1943, Schulz was drafted into the United States Army.(peanuts.wikia.com) Around the same time, his mother, Dena, died from cancer. His mother's death had a very strong impact on him. Schulz served as a staff sergeant with the 20th Armored Division in Europe. He was also a squad leader on a .50 caliber machine gun team. (www.huffingtonpost.com) He fought in battle at the very end of the war and only had one chance to fire his machine...

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...nd the fact that he could not read or see clearly, he announced his retirement on December 14, 1999. Schulz died in his sleep at his home on February 12, 2000 at around 9:45 pm, from complications involving his colon cancer. The last original "Peanuts" strip was published the next day February 13. Schulz was buried at Pleasant Hills Cementary in Sebastopol, California.

Charles M. Schulz was the creator of the well-known comic strip, "Peanuts" and many other comics. "Peanuts" is still very popular to this day. During the holidays, T.V. specials are still shown on T.V. and reruns of comic strips are still printed in newspapers, both daily and Sunday. Many people go to Snoopy's Ice Arena and visit the museum dedicated to Charles M. Schulz. Statues of "Peanuts" characters were placed all around Santa Rosa. Despite his absence, he is still well-loved and so is his work.

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