Now That Charlie Green is Gone Things Will Never Be The Same At Border
By Larry Lee, BraceBeagling Editor
November 26, 2004

DECEMBER 5, 1933-NOVEMBER 15, 2004

When I walked into the clubhouse at Border Beagle Club last weekend that familiar figure was not there. He was usually standing behind the counter at the far end of the club house cooking breakfast for all the beaglers who would gather for the monthly trials at Border. On a cool morning like last weekend he would be clad in his WW II bomber jacket that he prized so dearly. Things will never be the same at Border again.

Yes, another one of our fellow beaglers has departed the scene to go on to his final reward. It seems like that happens more and more often now as all of us get older. Just read those obituaries in H & H and you get a feeling of what I mean. This can be expected but it still hits home when the news arrives. Age doesn’t seem to make any difference in how you feel when you lose a friend.

Charlie was just that! He was a friend to all who knew him. People liked the upbeat mode they usually found him in. We all loved his dry sense of humor. And we all loved his love for the animals that he surrounded himself with--especially his brace trial beagles. While most brace beaglers keep their hounds in kennels Charley was different. His usual string of from 6 to 8 hounds enjoyed the freedom of roaming free in his large fenced in yard directly behind his house. He had individual dog huts at he back of the yard that the dogs slept in each night. Being a lover of individual freedom himself he wanted the same for the animals he kept. He was a great lover of cats and many cats roamed freely in the woods near his home near Holly, Michigan. Occasionally, he would gather the young ones up and take them to a place where the proprietors made it a practice of finding good homes for stray animals. Destroying any animal was always the furthest thought in his mind.

I previously mentioned that people loved his sense of dry humor. A couple of years ago Charley traveled with his good buddy, Duane Root to the Southern. I finally reached him one night by cell phone and after talking for a few minutes the conversation got around to Duane. “Do you know Duane has a new girl friend--and boy is she ever ugly!". Charlie exclaimed. Of course Duane didn’t have a new girl friend but it was an example of the sense of humor Charlie was bless with.

Charlie loved his field trial hounds and he raised some good ones. A couple of years ago he won the Eukanuba with Fd. Ch. Lowline Big Easy and placed second with Big Easy’s father, Fd. Ch. Lowline Pattrick. I was with him a few years ago when he won the 15’ bitch class at Hamilton-Middletown with Fd. Ch. Lowline Cindy. I can still remember how happy he was and in my mind’s eye still picture him laying in the middle of his bed in the hotel room that evening talking to Ralph Gillum about Cindy’s performance that afternoon.

Charlie’s presence was missed this past summer on the Norhtern licensed trial circuit. To my knowledge Charlie didn’t attend any of the licensed trials. We now know that Charlie was suffering with that wicked disease called cancer and was in the process of taking chemotherapy and radiation treatments in order to try and stop its progress. As it turns out he had the disease both in his lungs and in his bones. After an 11 month battle It was this cancer that finally took his life. He died in his own home with his family surrounding him.

Charlie was a rugged individualist and a very proud man. These may be a couple of the reasons he didn’t want anyone to know how serious his problem was. That was his desire. Those who talked to him on the phone reported that he was always upbeat in his conversations and you would never know anything was wrong with him. He always stated that he was recovering and would be back in action soon. That is the way he wanted it and that is the way it was. He didn’t want any visitors.

Yes, Charlie will be greatly missed by the members of Border Beagle Club as he will be by all the beaglers that knew him in all the many places on the brace trial beagling circuit where he traveled. That familiar figure cooking breakfast behind the counter won’t be seen again by us in this life. The man who also cooked the dinners and when they were ready hurried out into the field to help tally hoe a couple of rabbits before lunch will be missing. Border Grounds chairman Chris Vennix won’t have Charlie’s help keeping those paths in immaculate shape. Yes, Charlie is gone but we won’t forget him. Life will go on. That is the way Charlie Green would want it. My guess is that his dry sense of humor is making the heavenly host smile somewhere today.