Newspaper Clipping: Man Seeking Pennies, But Only In Check Form · Greer Heritage Museum collection

Title

Newspaper Clipping: Man Seeking Pennies, But Only In Check Form

Accession Number

2026.31.17.6

Accession Date

11 August 2026

Accession Creator

Sophie Pendergraft

Depositor

Kala Kennemore

Description

Newspaper clipping containing article titled "Man Seeking Pennies, But Only In Check Form" by Susan Beckham

Contributor

Written by Susan Beckham for the Spartanburg Herald

Date

26 March 1978

Storage Location

Box 78, Folder 4

Concerns

Bottom of paper is frayed at the edges.

Text

Man Seeking Pennies, But Only In Check Form

By Susan Beckham
Staff Writer

GREER - If you have a penny to spare, L.C. Pearson would sure like to have it.

But don’t send cash. What he wants has to be in the form of a check.

Since 1972, the retired, heavyset man has been collecting one-cent checks of every variety.
He has a category for just about everything, he laughingly says.

One book is filled with nothing but famous people’s checks. People like Lawrence WElk and the tallest woman in the world, Sandy Allen of Indiana.

“I cut out an article in a newspaper about the tallest woman who is 7’5” and the story contained her address. That’s how I got her check,” the collector reveals.

Every check has an accompanying illustration. Sometimes it’s a picture Pearson cuts out of a magazine or maybe a snapshot the person sent with his or her check.

The most prized check is the one signed by the “World’s Greatest Wife.”

“That’s my wife,” he grins. “And I tell you, I gave her that title because she sure deserves it.”

Pearson has a category of checks from every state and his next project is to get a check from every governor. There’s a category for unusual towns and one for people with unusual names.

For instance: Mr. Achenback (Aching back) is a Chiropractor who added to the collection at Pearson’s request.

There’s a check from Misters North, South, East and West, not to mention Misters Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer.

He also prizes the signature of Bill Keane, who writes a syndicated comic strip called The Family Circus. In all, the present count is 1,079 checks.

Not all of Pearson’s endeavors prove successful, however, he even had the FBI asking questions about him one time.

“I was trying to get a check from that prisoner, Arthur Bremer, who shot Gov. George Wallace. I wrote and asked the prisoner for the check, but never got one.”

“The postman told me there had been FBI agents in town asking about me. They must have known I meant no harm, because nothing ever came of it.”

Billy Graham didn’t send a one-cent check on request either. Pearson said he received a note explaining that the evangelist didn’t have time to write a check.

“After all that explanation, he could have written 10 in less time.”

The politicians seem receptive to Pearson’s hobby. He has the signature of both Pug Ravenel and Strom Thurmond.

He got started with check collecting in the winter of 1971 while vacationing in West Palm Beach, Fla.

The collector doesn’t personally know most of the people who send checks.

He has several form letters for the different categories he sends all over the world. He also sends articles explaining that he would never cash the check or try to change the amount of money for a profit.

Actually it costs him about 40 cents for every one-penny check considering mailing letters and thank-you notes and printing material.

His hobby has mainly developed since Pearson retired from the ownership and management of an insurance agency seven years ago.

He stays busy with lots of things in retirement. In 1986 he finished night school and received a high school diploma. The 71-year-old grey-haired man has been going to North Greenville Junior College for the past three winters. He’s majoring in public speaking and it’s easy to guess what his favorite topic is.

“I was at an Atlanta Braves training game and began to strike up a conversation with the fellow sitting beside me.
“At the end of the game, the man wrote me a check for one penny as something to remember him by,” Pearson said of the acquaintance whose name was Marion Penny.

“Well my mind started turning in a thousand directors and I knew I could think of all sorts of different kinds of checks to collect.”

He says the scrapbooks full of checks are of no value to anyone but himself. “No one else could get a thrill out of this like me.”

There’s a personal satisfaction in the hobby for Pearson. “Don’t you always like to get letters and open them? Well, it’s great suspense to go down to the post office and open a letter and receive one of my checks.”

If you’d like to contribute to Pearson’s collection, send a check made out for one penny to L.C. Pearson, P.O. Box 453, Greer, S.C. 29651. He says he doesn’t have many checks from the Spartanburg area.