Gayle and Eddie Brown with Bella, the 70-pound boxer mix that once belonged to their daughter, Ansley.
It’s impossible to completely soothe the excruciating heartbreak of outliving your only child, but an Isle of Palms couple has taken a huge step toward easing that searing pain and at the same time donating to a cause that in some ways defined their daughter’s life.
Ansley Hurst passed away at the age of 49 in June 2020, succumbing to complications following ovarian cancer surgery. Not long after, her parents, Gayle and Eddie Brown, went to work establishing a foundation in her honor. Ansley’s Angels, mostly self-funded by the Browns, didn’t make its first donation until last month when it contributed $2,500 that will help train and take care of a German shepherd that will soon become the centerpiece of the IOP Police Department’s first-ever canine unit.
It’s fitting that the foundation’s reason for being is “to support animals helping people,” Eddie pointed out. His daughter was a modern-day Elly May Clampett, who, in a 1960s-era sitcom tended to a menagerie of animals in and around the mansion inhabited by “The Beverly Hillbillies.” Ansley’s home was a 69-acre farm in Marion, South Carolina, where she took care of dogs, cats, pigs, chickens, ducks and geese.
“She was an animal lover. She couldn’t stand to see an animal without a home,” Eddie said.
One of her favorites was Bella, who at one time was an unwelcome guest at the Brown home. Eddie said he told Ansley to “get that dog out of here and don’t bring her back.” Today, the 70-pound boxer mix is one of the Brown family’s four pets – two cats and two dogs; all of them rescues – and serves as Eddie’s alarm clock, waking him up in the morning by licking his face.
The Browns’ relationship with the Isle of Palms Police Department starting with a friendly conversation between Gayle and IOP Police Chief Kevin Cornett at the recent Law Enforcement Neighborhood Support program’s annual banquet. The chief told her the police deal with three or four cases a day of lost children on the beach. Tracking will be one of the jobs that will be handled by the newest member of the department.
“That got the wheels turning,” Gayle explained. “It hit all the boxes for us. We want to do good things for people and animals. It’s a good opportunity to reach people in a different way.”
“What a really good way to help people understand what the police are doing,” she added. “They don’t just break up riots.”
Eddie said the foundation is interested in making additional donations to animal-related organizations, preferably smaller groups “where our money would make a difference in their work.”
“We want to do something while we’re still here to honor Ansley,” he stated.
The Browns would like to play a role in naming the star of the Police Department’s new canine unit.
“We have asked, not demanded, that the police dog be named Angel. We’ve very quietly requested,” Eddie said.
“When the dog finds a child or helps arrest a drug dealer, she’s going to be an angel,” Gayle added.