They called him B.C. ... a letter from the daughter of a life long fan.

I received a letter from a woman whose father happened to share initials with his favorite comic strip! B.C. was such a huge fan of B.C., that when he passed away in 2000, his family carved it on his headstone.

Here's Melanie's letter:

My Dad, B.C. Smith, nicknamed "Boots" as a teen, lived in Garrett, Indiana his entire life. He was a natural joke and story-teller, fooling his own children many times with the same stories year after year. In the 1960's, [Dad] began reading B.C. and loved [it's] style of humor. After that he [became] B.C. to many people. He enjoyed the strips and often quoted them. He loved the one, "When I was young we were so poor, the only thing we exchanged for Christmas was glances."
Dad had most of the little paperback books of daily strips and reread them many times. He was an engineer on the B&O railroad and when he was called for a run he would leave notes for [Mom] signed with an ant hill and two ants a la "Jake and Maude" from the strip.

When my father turned 80 in 1994, in response to my brother's letter of request, Johnny Hart sent Dad an original strip signed "God bless you 80 times". My father was very impressed [and] LOVED the [gift]. When Dad died in 2000, it seemed only natural to put the signature style B.C. on his grave stone.
Although [he's been gone for 9 years], there is still a B.C. strip hanging above Dad's workbench. Something about a "door-to-door salesman selling back-to-back tape for wall-to-wall carpet in Walla Walla".
Here is a picture of Dad's headstone.
Thank you,
Melanie