He was like The Rock Star of Brace Beagling--That Was Duane Root
By Larry Lee, BraceBeagling Editor
June 03, 2007

He was like The Rock Star of Brace Beagling--That Was Duane Root

Where ever he went he was like a star. He commanded attention. It was like people were drawn to him for no apparent reason whatsoever.

When he and his buddy, Charlie Green attended the Southern Federation several years ago the crowd at Lookout Beagle Club held a birthday party for him right out in the parking lot. Someone found out it was his birthday and the celebration in honor of him became spontaneous.

Even the dogs he owned and those that he handled for other people were drawn to him. You would see him setting on the side of a hill or along a path talking and petting the hound he was running in the next brace. I swear he could get an extra 10% out of them mainly because they liked him. There wasn't anyone that could get a hound on the line better than Duane. If necessary he would crawl into the briars on his hands and knees to get his charge firmly established on the line before he would cut it loose. Sometimes because of the blood thinners he was on blood would be gushing from his wounds when he returned to the gallery.

What a fitting tribute it was to him when just before he died when the field champion called Elite he trained from a barely started pup became the top producing sire of derbies for the year 2006. I called him on the phone that week to congratulate him. However his answering machine picked up and he never did call back. I didn't realize how sick he was.

He would hollar and rant and rave at people all the time. A complete stranger observing his actions for the first time would think his friends were his complete enemies. But of course they weren't. People loved him and he loved them back in a sort of strange kind of way.

I will never forget Doug Shulz and him dancing together around the Oakland clubhouse with Duane crooning to him. Those of us present almost split a gut watching the antics.

Yes, Duane Root (His friends call him Tiny) is gone but will never be forgotten by all of us that were fortunate enough to have known him.

He thought he was on the way to recovery but it turned out much to my surprise that he wasn't. He called me on the phone just prior to the 2006 derby season saying he was looking to buy a good derby. His voice was crisp and clear like it had been several years ago before the diseases ravished his body. Fred Becknell, his good friend, confident and pastor of the church Duane belonged to told me it was just a show. Not a show in a bad sense of the word but a show protraying the will of a man strong in character and rugged American individualism. All the time the cancer was taking its toil leaving him at a body weight of 110 pounds when he died. Duane's buddy and friend, Charlie Green had displayed these same traits when he waged his war against cancer.

What was it about this man that caused others to adore him so much? Pastor Becknell said in his ulogy at the funeral that Duane was for real. There was nothing put on about him. What you saw is what you got. There is a row of seats in Becknell's church one of which Duane sat in each Sunday when he wasn't out on the beagling circuit. It became know as "heathen row". It was fitting that one of those seats was reserved in Duane's honor the day of his funeral. Duane would sometimes kid Pastor Bicknell after a service that if his sermons became any longer he would have bring a sandwich to church with him.

Larry Lanning, Duane's very good friend and dog partner from Ohio, thought it was his demeanor that people appreciated. Larry said, "when you walked into the clubhouse in the morning Duane was always bright and cheery and he stayed that way all day." Larry also said concerning his friend, "The first time I met him my first impression was that he was just a loud mouth character but when I got to know him I discovered he was just a sweetheart."

Larry said he also liked the fact that Duane had a heart of gold. "There was a beagler at our club who was legally blind who needed a dog. Duane gave him a dog and throughout the following years supplied him with several others."

Southern Michigan beagler, Danny Williams told me just before Duane';s funeral that people liked Duane because you could devil him. By this Danny meant that you could tell him something that he would take you as being dead serious about but when he discovered you were just teasing he would let out a roar. Duane would have got a kick out of something that happened to Danny just before his funeral. Danny and Bud Wooster were seated in a row of chairs at the back of the church. When they rolled Duane's casket in to take it to the front of the church the casket hit Danny's chair and he had to get up and move so they could make the corner with it. Duane would have loved that,

Duane was a man of faith. It wasn't a showy kind of faith that turns many people off but It was a faith that was deep and abiding. According to Becknell Duane came to faith just before his first wife died. She was suffering from a terminal disease and Duane invited the pastor over to his house to discuss his predicament. It was shortly after that when Duane joined Becknell's Christian Alliance church.

It doesn't seem like it has been nearly a year since Duane died. But come Friday, June 8 it will be. I miss his late night calls and our discussions concerning the Pistons and various hounds. Duane is in a better place now. But those of us who were fortunate enough to have shared his friendship still miss him. Good friendships are like that. We wouldn't want it any other way.