Newspaper Clipping: A collector's passion - and a 'fortune' in checks · Greer Heritage Museum collection

Title

Newspaper Clipping: A collector's passion - and a 'fortune' in checks

Accession Number

2026.31.17.5

Accession Date

11 August 2026

Accession Creator

Sophie Pendergraft

Depositor

Kala Kennemore

Description

Newspaper clipping containing article titled "What's in a name? A collector's passion - and a 'fortune' in checks" by Lynne Lucas

Contributor

Written by Lynne Lucas for The News

Storage Location

Box 78, Folder 4

Text

What’s in a name?

L.C. Pearson keeps his collection of one-cent checks categorized in notebooks

A collector’s passion – and a ‘fortune’ in checks

GREER– At last count, L.C. Pearson had 1,543 legitimate checks made out to him that he has never cashed. And never will, he says.

Pearson couldn’t care less about the money. It’s the name on the bottom of the check that makes him beam like a floodlight.

“I’m an autograph hound,” said the 76-year-old Greer city councilman. “But I get mine a little different from anyone else. I’ll ask them for a one-cent check and when they sign the check, I’ve got their autograph.”

Some of the autographs are famous folks – including Ronald Reagan, “Dear Abby” Van Buren, coach Danny Ford, race car driver David Pearson, Lawrence Welk, Family Circus cartoonist Bil Keane and Gov. Richard Riley. Those are filed in one of his umpteen scrapbooks labeled “famous.”

Some of his other checks are filed in a more unorthodox, almost amusing manner – in accordance with Pearson’s imagination. He has one album, labeled “colors” and in it are signed checks from Kay Bright, Paul Brown, Melvin D. Redd, Bobby Gray, Tanya E. Green, and Grover White.

He found people with last names Winter, Summer, Spring and Fall and grouped them together under “seasons.” He has a check from each state, a grouping for those folks with floral names like Rose, edible names like Apple, and animal names like Crow.

Pearson’s fascination with one-cent checks dates back 12 years when he attended a baseball exhibition game in West Palm Beach, Fla., between the Atlanta Braves and the Baltimore Orioles.

“I was watching the game with this guy and we were getting along real good,” said Pearson, a retired insurance agent and independent businessman. “At the end of the ninth inning, he said, ‘Here’s something to remember me by, and he handed me a check for one cent. His name was Marion Penny. My mind went in a thousand different directions when he gave me that.”

Since then the search for new autographed checks has become Pearson’s primary pastime, in addition to collecting old photographs and marrying couples as a notary public.

He has calling cards with “A one-cent check collector” listed as his specialty. He printed up a sample check along with an explanation for his unusual request that he mails out with high hopes to famous people or those with odd names.

He includes a stamped return envelope and when he receives a signed check, he sends off a note of gratitude. So the total correspondence for each one-cent signature is 60 cents, he figures, plus printing costs.

Check signed by Ronald Reagan
… is filed in the ‘famous’ category

But it’s all worth it for Pearson, who stores his extensive collection of checks and personally rewarding tidbits in the upstairs hideaway of his brick home in Greer. A winding spiral staircase leads up to his “little nest” where he keeps laminated pages of Depression-era issues of The Greenville News, a framed photo of the 1929 Young Men’s Bible Class from Victor Baptist church and a sign over his desk that reads, Low Aim is Sin.

Pearson’s high aim is to increase his check collection, especially in his low categories, such as checks from people over 100 years old. Pasting them in his book, along with his affectionate labels (he has World’s Greatest Wife written next to the one-cent check from his wife of 55 years, Evie) is a full-time operation.

“If you want to keep busy all the time, retire,” advised Pearson.

He admits the collection is worthless to anyone else, but provides personal satisfaction for him.

One of his favorites is a check from a chiropractor, Dr. Achenback. Then there’s the check from Jimmy Christmas, dated Dec. 25, the one from a judge named Truly Right, the attorney with the last name Lawyer, and the directional series with checks from people with last names East, West, North and South.

If it’s corny, he’ll love it. He has a check from Ann Little who married Gary Hand signed, ‘A. Little Hand.”

Pearson welcomes new additions to his collection. Just send a one-cent check to P.O. Box 453, Greer, South Carolina 29651.

He won’t cash it.