cross-breeding had been done in Eng- land. Upon inquiry the information had come from the ABGA, not a member club at that time. All those people who were not members of the club were shocked. They felt that the reason for the dis- qualification was because of the earlier run-in between the two ladies and the sanctions they received over the black smooth bitch years before. In other words, it was a vindictive move by the President of the American Brussels Grif- fon Association. It did have its shadow since the reforming of the standard had not been approved by the Board nor was it sent to the membership of the ABGA for their approval. Since my original breeding stock came from England, I had made many friends. When they heard this news the English Griffon world was terribly upset at the stigma which was placed on them. I went to England in 1965 and 1967 interviewing the top Griffon ken- nels to see if I could uncover any infor- mation to substantiate such a claim. Finally in July of 1970 I was granted an appointment with Mr. Chiverton, Man- ager of Registrations of the British Ken- nel Club in London. His secretary and I went through the cross-bred records, going back to 1903 and no record of any Griffon cross could be found. With this important information verified in writing by the British Kennel Club, we could now tackle AKC. In July of 1971 I presented Mr. Wil- liam Stifel, Secretary of the American Kennel Club with a book with close to 200 pages. Included in the presen- tation was the above verification from England, support letters from breeders throughout the country, letters from the Brussels Griffon Clubs of England and Scotland as well as pedigrees show- ing that some of our top stud dogs were producing black smooth Griffons. America was the only country that had such a disqualification. Mr. Stifel, a grand gentleman and very supportive, realizing that since we had no parent member club in 1971 the AKC Board could vote on the issue. His support and guidance gave us great hope and enthusiasm. Such hope, as it turned out, was fruitless. In February of 1972, Jacque Jones (Treyacres) and I had a hour-long meet- ing with Mr. Stifel in New York and he assured us that it was still under
he’s a lawyer and secondly he’s a par- liamentarian.” I hung up the phone and turned to Gil and said, “I shouldn’t be astonished, we have a Mighty God, but I think our prayers have just been answered.” Just as my friend Bill Kendrick has predicted, the reformatting of the standard was our golden opportunity to right the injustice that had been imposed on our breed. It would not be a single person reformatting the standard this time. Too many of us had worked too hard to allow this to happen again. Now there was strength in numbers and with the open membership within the Club there was much work to be done. In a phone conversation with Miss Bueno she informed me she planned to reform the standard herself. I advised her that the club would be best served having a committee and presenting it to the membership. She insisted this was not necessary. At the following year’s membership meeting, I made a motion from the floor to form a committee to reformat the standard. The motions carried and the committee was formed consisting of Miss Bueno, Jacque Jones, Richard Thomas, Marjorie Simon (Stardust) and I as Chairperson. As breeders and judges, the depth of experience was very impressive. Without changing the original word- ing of the standard, it was brought into the format which The American Kennel Club had outlined. This was not accom- plished in an easy fashion as deadlines would not be met and letters would go unanswered from the opposing side. There was great opposition on the part of our President due to our efforts to remove the black smooth disqualifica- tion. Since this was holding things back, during the summer of 1989, the com- mittee was called to the Board Room at AKC in New York and, in the presence of AKC personnel, Mr. Terry Stacey, Michael Suave and John Mandeville, the committee completed the final draft. Again AKC would have no part of the black smooth advising that we would have to present this to the membership. How simply remarkable since in 1959 and without any help from the member- ship, AKC put it into our standard. 6 HOUR MEETING At the annual meeting in Terry- town, New York, in September of 1988
advisement. By the end of 1973 and another visit to Mr. Stifel’s office in New York, I was told that “the time is just not right, perhaps you should ask Miss Bueno to bring it before the club.” The presentation met the “round file.” Following Mr. Stifel’s instructions I did write to Miss Bueno and laid the case before her. Copies of all the docu- mentation were included so that there would be no doubt in her mind that the crossbreeding was false. There was great disappointment when no reply or acknowledgment was forthcoming. Miss Bueno’s biggest mistake was not presenting this matter to the member- ship for a vote. Had it been done in a proper fashion and with her great influ- ence I am sure the vote would have been in the negative, the case closed and the matter dropped. In 1974 a letter from the very well respected all-breed judge, Mr. William Kendrick—who took it upon himself to champion our cause—informed me that the American Kennel Club was again thinking of reformatting every breed standards to a set format enabling judg- es to have quick reference at judging events. Twelve years later Bill’s remarks came to pass. However, I felt I had done all I could over the years and I’m afraid I gave up the fight in the late 1970s. THE WILD 1980S I shall never forget the night that Lorene Vickers Smith (Wisselwood) telephoned and asked me if I would consider taking on the black smooth disqualification again. I replied in the negative since I felt that since we must work with a President so vehemently opposed my efforts would be in vain. She asked me to think about it and would help all she could. I remember asking my husband Gil what he thought and he said, “You’ve been at this now for 30 years.” I said, “Yes, but it just won’t let me alone.” He added, “It’s going to be a tough battle, but let’s leave it in the Lord’s hands.” A week or so lat- er, Lorene called again with the same request. I said that I thought it over but I still felt it was out of our hands. I said, “If I did tackle this, I would need a parliamentarian and a lawyer, since I wasn’t going to tackle the parent club, Miss Bueno and AKC unarmed.” She said, “Perhaps my husband Terry Smith could help you.” I said, “Well, what does he do?” Lorene replied, “Well, first off
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