In 1940, Brownie, a little tan dog, wandered into a cab company office on Beach Street, which was then the main thoroughfare of Daytona Beach. The company and its neighbors decided to adopt Brownie, and for the next 14 years he was a town celebrity. Each day he would make his rounds up and down Beach Street, going from store to store. He would wear a little box around his neck, into which people would put money that would pay for his food and his vet bills. The cab drivers chipped in every day to buy Brownie a pint of ice cream.
When Brownie died in October 1954, he had 75 mourners at his funeral. He was buried under a granite slab in Riverfront Park, adjacent to Beach Street. The slab gives Brownie's unofficial title, "The Town Dog," and then, as a heartfelt afterthought, "A Good Dog."
A small, bloblike topiary Brownie keeps watch over his grave.
