Sincerity is key for collector of autographs in Advance

ADVANCE, Mo. -- "Go with what works for you."

That's the motto celebrity autograph collector Kenny Stroup of Advance lives by -- and apparently, it's working for him.

Over the past 16 years, Stroup has collected between 3,000 and 4,000 autographs from celebrities as well as photographs of himself with celebrities.

He has pictures of himself with professional athletes, including the late Jack Buck; Larry Bird; Pete Rose; former St. Louis Cardinals Ozzie Smith, Lou Brock and Stan Musial; as well as actors like John Goodman. He knows former University of Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz and has received over 40 letters from him.

If that's not enough, he's got just as many celebrity autographs: Princess Diana, John Travolta, Barbara Streisand, Johnny Carson, Frank Sinatra and Jennifer Lopez are only a few of the autographs Stroup's received.

'It takes time'

Stroup sends magazine covers, trading cards and posters for celebrities to autograph. He's been told to open a museum, and the longtime minister joked he could show things nonstop for two days.

"I didn't get this overnight," Stroup said. "It takes time doing this. And I stay persistent with it. I follow up with it. It's like a regular job. It's just something that I automatically do on a daily basis."

So what's Stroup's secret to obtaining his collection?

Good, old-fashioned letter-writing.

"I do it all by hand," Stroup said. "No computers. Just plain notebook paper, usually."

And add a little sincerity, and that's all it takes to receive a response, Stroup said.

"People for some reason have a hard time complimenting somebody in the right way," he said. "They're humans just like you or me."

Celebrities are people who need reaching like anybody else, Stroup said. When they get mail, they can sense it -- even when it's their office people or agents -- they know if it's really sincere, he said.

In 1996, when the late Princess Diana was going through her divorce with Prince Charles, Stroup felt a need to reach out to her by writing a letter. He received a response from Diana thanking him for his letter.

"It's important for me to be able to say something nice to them, something kind to them. Basically, when it really comes down to it, I care about the people. I try to treat people as I want to be treated. It will pay off in the long run, and good things are going to happen in your life by being that way," Stroup said.

The hardest part of writing celebrities is getting it into the hands of the person you want to get it to, Stroup said. "It's not easy to do because anyone can write letters, but it depends on how you write it -- and I think it's something that comes natural to me."

Stroup also said he credits God's hand in his being at the right place at the right time. When the statue of Jack Buck was unveiled at Busch Stadium in 1998, Stroup was unable to attend due to church services. Two weeks later, he and his father were at a Cardinals ballgame and were looking at the statue when Buck just happened to pass by them.

Stroup, a childhood fan of Buck's, snatched the chance and asked Buck if he could have his picture taken with him.

"I was writing somebody one night, listening to a St. Louis Cardinals game with my dad, and Jack Buck mentioned me," Stroup recalled. "He said, 'I just want to thank Kenny Stroup for the nice letter he sent me.' I thought that was special."

Sometimes Stroup takes a week off from writing, but on a regular basis, he probably averages about three people each day who he reaches out to, he said. If someone writes 10 or 15 letters a week, the percentage is they're going to hear from somebody. One year Stroup wrote over 1,000 letters.

"I feel that I'm supposed to do this," Stroup said. "I think my role in ministry helps provide me with the gift to write celebrities. It's not a business for me or to make any money. It doesn't cross my mind to do it for profit even though it cost me a lot of money in postage."

Once Stroup receives something back from the celebrities, how does he know the signatures are authentic?

"They've got books out on that where they match the handwriting," he said, adding that he knows they're real. "What makes me stand out from others is that God has his hands in it."

Security has also gotten beefed up over the years, making it a little difficult to contact celebrities. People selling items on the Internet and the events of Sept. 11 are also contributing factors to less celebrity response, Stroup said.

The decrease in responses is happening more now than ever before, Stroup said. People are selling the autographs, and it's sad because it hurts the hobby, he said.

Material possessions are the last things on Stroup's mind when he writes celebrities, he said, adding that he never intends to sell his collection.

"It's not about money," Stroup said. "It's about making people feel good."