In December, after being diagnosed with colon cancer, Schulz announced that he would no longer draw “Peanuts,” the most widely read comic strip in history. Saturday at home in Santa Rosa, with his wife, Jeannie, by his side. On Friday, Schulz, 77, had a last skate around the ice rink he owns and died in his sleep about 9:45 p.m. A master storyteller to the end, Schulz’s goodbye message to more than 355 million daily readers worldwide became his own epitaph.

Schulz, whose anxious and joyful heart infused the world’s most influential comic strip, dovetailed with the publication of his last original “Peanuts” on Sunday - the way he might have scripted it.

This article was originally published on Feb.