Betty the Stuffed Sleigh Dog

Died 1937

Fennville, Michigan

The winter of 1937 was nasty in the upper Midwest. It trapped a bus full of tourists, or a few truckers (accounts vary) in Glenn, MI, forcing them to eat whatever was on hand, thus creating "The Pancake Town." And it was in 1937, perhaps during that winter, that a seven-year-old dog named Betty died.

Betty lived in Chicago with a lady with no children. The lady loved her dog, and when Betty died the lady had her stuffed. When the lady died, she willed Betty to a niece named Kate. Kate worked part-time on the pie crew at Crane's Pie Pantry Restaurant, a family-owned business that was decorated with old farm junk and goofy mannequins. Kate kept Betty for a while, but she got tired of vacuuming the dead dog. She asked the Cranes if they'd like to take Betty. The Cranes said yes. And that is when Betty, fifty years after she had died, finally reached the spotlight.

Betty has become the mascot of Crane's Pie Pantry Restaurant. She sits in a sleigh on the enclosed porch. A sign around her neck gives the sparse facts of her life. She is vacuumed once a year. And her new home is Fennville, just down the road from Glenn The Pancake Town.

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