travels with Charlie,
antique books for the specialty, and a visit with a founding importer of the 1950's
by clay finney

One day in late August I received an email from fellow SDCA member, Charlene Vincent, a.k.a. Charlie, perhaps better known to us for the fine obedience columns that she penned for The Claymore a few years ago. Charlie wrote,
Good morning. I feel like I know you from reading your articles in The Claymore…
I wrote an obedience article for The Claymore a few years ago and quit the article when my Deerhound, Sindar Quell The Mighty, C.D., died at 6 years of age of what the vets believed was aspiration pneumonia. It all but broke my heart. Luckily for me, I had just bought and awaited the arrival of a Terv pup, and she has almost filled in the gap.

I have a copy of Scotch Deer-Hounds and Their Masters, signed by Mrs. George Cupples, June 1894. Also, The Scottish Deer-Hound, E. Weston Bell, published 1892. Also a few misc. clippings from the mid 1950's, all given to me by an acquaintance who had a Deerhound in the 50's.


Charlene Vincent and Splash, the Belgian Tervuren CDX, RA

I explained to Charlie that I had original copies of both books, knew of the value, and we seemed to agree that putting them into the SDCA National Specialty auction might be the best way to find the books a worthy home while raising money for the SDCA and the research we help fund. When Charlie told me that she received the books and photos from a woman named Joan I immediately thought of Joan Bennett, the importer in the mid 1950's of Ch. Thunder of Enterkine, perhaps the first big-winning Deerhound in America with at least 2 BIS, 28 Group 1sts, 29 other Group wins, and 69 BOBs. But no, this Joan had brought another Enterkine dog over a few years after Thunder. Charlie wrote back:

If I've got this right, she said her dog was Boyd of Enterkine, a Champion, that he won at Madison Square Garden. That she imported him from England at 6 months of age, and that Thunder was imported before that. Her last name in the '50's was Beane and she lived in Washington State. She had Hedonic Kennels and also had poodles, I think she said miniature.

How well I knew the name of Boyd, since Sadie Hawkins had taken her Veda of Ardkinglas to him to produce her Almyr's Douglas, whelped in 1959. Douglas was the sire of my own Ch. Almyr's Lady of Lea and of Almyr's Erica, C.D., owned by the McCleans of Santa Rosa, CA, and the dam of Ch. Liath Ian of Dalmahoy, a prolific sire and one of the great Group winning Deerhounds on the west coast.

Charlie made a phone call to a nursing home in Reseda, CA (Charlie lives in Chatsworth) and found that Joan was very much still kicking, though a stroke had left her partially paralyzed. This was all I needed to know to add to a planned visit with my son and his family in Glendora, CA, a visit to Charlie and Joan as well.

 

 

 

Charlie's home turned out to be a sprawling Spanish hacienda at the very edge of Chatsworth, tucked away in the shadows of the Chatsworth Fault, an almost magical sort of ridgeline made of house sized boulders. She must surely be one of the last people living on a "dirt" road in the greater Los Angeles area. Ancient trees spread their shade over the property, thick trunks standing solid as they have been since the Spanish first came. Charlie told me a bit later that the area had been scene to many a cowboy movie in decades past. Robert Wagner had filmed a TV episode at her house, with guest-star country singing legend Eddie Arnold taking a break in her living room to play a song or two.

Charlie herself is simply a delight to be around. Though she is without a Deerhound at present, her love for the breed hasn't diminished. Just as gracious a hostess was her Belgian Tervuren, Splash. I know what our second breed will be if we ever purposely take that plunge. Needless to say, I was very grateful to Charlie for donating her time and company to visit a lady in her mid-eighties who was confined to a nursing home recovering from a stroke, with oxygen tubes a constant companion.

But what a person we found! Do not go gently into that good night! Joan (now Joan Shepherd) wasn't about to. We met a woman of a keen mind that seemed a counterpoint to her frail body. And we learned a bit about what it was to have a great Deerhound in a time of Deerhound dearth.

Joan was born in British Columbia about 83 or 84 years ago, she's forgotten which. While a child her family moved to southern California, then back to Canada later. As a young woman she was a nurse in the Canadian Air Force. She toured the country from coast to coast with a drill-team that helped generate interest in the Air Force for young recruits. Somewhere along the way she married, moved to Washington State, and became interested in breeding and showing Poodles with her husband, Norman Beane. Joan kept clippings from British and American dog magazines of the day and was perhaps influenced by the British Deerhound and Poodle breeder, Lady Paris, as well as by the success of Ch. Thunder of Enterkine in America. Lady Paris's Deerhound bitch, Fiveoaks Kestrel, was described by Miss Bell in an account of the 1957 Crufts Novice class. (1st place), …shapely bitch, free mover, nice head.


Lady Paris's Fiveoaks Kestrel and Fiveoaks Capet

Kestrel was sold by Lady Paris to Canadian, Mrs. J. Laurie (later Mrs. Audrey Benbow), and was mentioned in Sadie Hawkins Nov. 1959 Popular Dogs column as having just won a Group IV at the Watertown, NY show. Joan had been disappointed that so few Deerhounds were being shown. She sent Boyd to the 1959 Chicago International show for a total entry of nine, where he was WD and BW to BOB, Ch. Quibba of Enterkine. Joan gave up Boyd of Enterkine to a new owner on Long Island, New York when premature arthritis compromised her health. How I wish that Joan could attend a National Specialty show these days.


Joan Shepherd. I took this shot of a young Joan from her small bulletin-board collage of photos. -Clay Finney