The meeting, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the library’s downstairs Sutliff Meeting Room.
Taken on Biak Island, Indonesia in Sept. 1944. About 5,000 enemy soldiers were trapped in caves two miles away.
William A. Wayne is a former USAAF enlisted man who was stationed in the South Pacific during WWII. While stationed on the Island of New Guinea, Mr. Wynne bought a Yorkshire Terrier, named Smoky. Their adventures together ranged from flying in PBY Catalinas to assisting engineers with getting the communications operational at an airbase at Lingayen Gulf, Luzon, where Wynne had Smoky drag a telegraph wire, tied to her collar, under a runway, through a 70-foot-long culvert only 8 inches high. Wynne and Smoky also entertained troops and wounded soldiers with the more than 200 tricks Wynne taught her. After the war, Mr. Wynne brought Smoky back to the United States carrying her in a modified oxygen mask case. After a brief stint in Hollywood, and becoming famous back home in Cleveland, they starred on their own shows on all three television channels Cleveland had at the time. Smoky was famous for her tricks, her spirit and her size. The four pound Yorkshire Terrier emerged from a jungle in the South Pacific and became a war hero. She now has six memorials honoring her, nationally.
Bill Wynne has since written a book entitled Yorkie Doodle Dandy which chronicles Smoky’s life as the very first therapy dog.
Newly discharged Cpl. Bill Wynne of Cleveland and Smoky are glad to home from the far Pacific. Smoky spent 18 months in combat. Dec. 1945.
