reported by Brian Konradt, FictionFanatic.com

DeForest Kelley, the actor best remembered as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in the original Star Trek television and motion picture series, is being remembered with special emphasis and poignancy during Star Trek's 40th anniversary, which officially began on September 8th, the date the first episode premiered.

Planet Xpo, Creation Conventions, and other convention owners have invited Kristine M Smith, author of DeForest Kelley: A Harvest of Memories, My Life and Times with a Remarkable Gentleman Actor, to recount the effect Kelley had on her life and career and on the lives of thousands of other fans who followed in his footsteps by entering helping professions to become doctors, nurses, technicians, social workers and more.

The evolution of Smith's extraordinary relationship is meticulously documented in her affectionate -- and deeply affecting -- personal memoir. Smith begins at the beginning (1966), inviting readers to vicariously tag along and share her twixt-twelve-and-twenty excitement as she casts her eyes on her favorite actor, DeForest Kelley for the first time ever: live, up-close and personal.

Surprisingly, Smith?s cosmic destiny is somehow secured during this initial interaction. Actor Kelley takes a professional interest in Kris within weeks as her writing abilities become known to him by way of a letter she had written him and a school essay she had written about him. The actor begins to cultivate Kris?s personal and creative evolution -- beginning in Washington State as a fledgling freelance writer (whose first nationwide article he launches) and continuing through her move to California in 1989 as a Hollywood-bound hopeful; to her eventual establishment as a Hollywood-based executive secretary; continuing even as far as her anxiety-provoking forays into the world of stand-up comedy which she essayed at three national Star Trek conventions. Not known (in advance) and certainly never anticipated by either participant is the amazing "end piece" of their alliance: the poignant and heart-rending events that underscored Kelley?s final weeks as Smith becomes his personal assistant and eventually his caregiver during the last few months of his life.

Over the Big Weekend (Sept. 8-10) Smith appeared at Planet Xpo's 40th Anniversary Gala Celebration in Seattle and at Creation Convention's 40th anniversary celebration in Sacramento, delighting fans with her reminiscences of the actor most friends, co-stars and fans knew as "De."

It was readily apparent, given the response of fans, that Kelley's legacy of love lives on in the lives, memories and devotion of those who met him or wish they had. Smith said, "All this residual love and enduring light would be a delightful surprise to De, a man who's most famous line was 'He's dead, Jim.' He once reflected, in an interview, 'You know, there's nothing deader than a dead actor' when he was asked what he thought or hoped his legacy might be. He would have been touched to the toes to witness the dozens of "McCoy clones" (actual doctors, nurses, technicians, social workers and teachers)at these conventions. He always felt these people were the finest legacy he could leave as a 'mere' actor. And here they all are! It's just amazing! And I get to hug them all and let them know how proud De would be of them. What a privilege!"

National Public Radio interviewed Smith at both venues.