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Posted 03/08/06
Holly Bostwick is the niece of founding ANTA member and pioneering breeder Barbara S. Fournier. Holly's letter was read at the annual meeting and is reproduced here for all ANTA members.
Congratulations on your 25th Anniversary! Celebrating the founding of your club is an event I know Barbara Schilf Fournier, aka Bobby, would have attended with great joy were she with us today. However, knowing my aunt, I suspect that she is there looking over all of your shoulders with a large smile on her face and a twinkle in her eyes.
As many of you know, Bobby believed very strongly in the separation of the two types of ear carriage of the Norwich Terriers and worked hard to see that happen. She also wanted her Norfolks to have a club of their own in the USA. Being a founder of ANTA meant a great deal to her. Not only do I know these things from personal experience, but they have been confirmed as I have been sorting through the many boxes of her papers.
After Bobby died in January, 2000, I promised a number of Norfolk people that I would go through Bobby's papers in order to preserve information about the breed, the clubs, the breeders and lovers of the breed. I've gone through not quite half of the over forth file boxes. Long term organization was not my aunt's strong suit, but she did keep almost everything. I have laughed over the grocery lists with phone numbers on them, smiled at photos from show wins, had some wonderful memories from the Bethany days, cried when reading letters from my mother to her sister and seen some sides of Bobby I didn't know about. It has been a pleasure to set aside most of the contents for Norfolk lovers such as yourselves.
My first shipment was to Jane Anderson for ANTA. I hope that those of you who purchase something of Bobby's from the store or win a trophy of hers will enjoy them in good health and with fond memories of her. There was a small amount of historical information in what I sent. There will be more, I know. I would love for ANTA to have much of this information so that it won't get lost. It is what Bobby would want, too. Perhaps one member of the club would consider acting as historian and caretaker of not only Bobby's papers but others that may come your way? Please consider it so that the work of many Norfolk breeders and lovers won't be lost. Make ANTA's 50th anniversary rich in history of the dog we love!
Thank you for considering my request. Somehow it seemed appropriate to send this letter on some of Bobby's old letterhead. You can see that her major focus was `Norfolk Terriers'.
Enjoy your celebration. I look forward to reading about it in ANTIC.
Sincerely,
Holly P. Bostwick (with the help of Ch. Bethway's Carlos)
ANTIC, December, 2005
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