War dog immortalized

KING –There is a new life-sized statue of a dog at the Wisconsin Veterans Home. It’s located next to the commandant’s house and near the sidewalk that overlooks Rainbow Lake. It’s of Brownie, a German shepherd mix from King who served in the army during World War II.
Author Kelly Nelson wrote a children’s picture book titled “Brownie the War Dog: Veterans’ Best Friend.” She spearheaded the fundraising to memorialize the canine.
Last year was the 75th anniversary of the dog’s death and she had hoped to have the sculpture in place by them but it did not work out that way. “Every dog has its day,” she said.
The military did not use dogs much before WWII but a civilian group called Dogs for Defense organized a recruiting drive to commandeer dogs for the war effort. Oren Kendley, an 11-year-old boy, donated Brownie who was shipped to the Pacific to work as a guard dog.
Brownie took a bullet to the eye while serving from May 1943 to October 1944. The dog lived with a glass eye thereafter when he returned to King. Brownie lived hear the Wisconsin Veteran’s Home and became an unofficial mascot to the veterans that lived there. He was friends to all.
Brownie died at the age of eight in 1949 and the dog is buried in the Central Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery. He is the only non-human buried next to veterans and Nelson believes that Brownie might be the only non-human in the world buried alongside veterans at a veteran’s cemetery.
Nelson’s book can be ordered through its publisher, The Wisconsin Historical Society Press, at https://shop.wisconsinhistory.org.