Author Stan Berenstain dead at 82

DOYLESTOWN, Pa., Nov. 30 (UPI) -- The popular co-creator of the Berenstain Bears -- Stan Berenstain -- has died in Doylestown, Pa. He was 82.

Berenstain died Saturday of lymphoma, his wife and collaborator, Jan, told the New York Times.

The Berenstains have sold nearly 300 million children's books in which the family of four bears confront and solve a myriad of life crises. The stories always have a happy ending and carry a moral message.

The Berenstain Bears have crossed over into pop culture via TV, amusement park rides, video games, musicals and McDonald's Happy Meal promotions, the Times noted.

The couple met in a drawing class at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art and married years later in 1946.

Their first Berenstain Bears book, "The Big Honey Hunt," was purchased in the early 1960s for Random House by an editor by the name of Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss.

Berenstain is survived by his wife, two sons, four grandchildren and a sister.