Jane Williams – 2025 – Service to Organization

As an inductee to the ASC Hall of Fame for Service to the Organization, one of Jane Williams early dogs was CH R-Classic Song of the South (Tatar Pie), which was whelped in 1989.  Tater Pie hooked Jane on Cocker Spaniels, and she continued showing them.  Aaron Morris campaigned for Tater as a special, and Jane became a ring steward par excellence to follow her exploits.  A few years later, she adopted a kennel name (Janbet — a combination of her name and her daughter’s) and finished some progeny of CH Must Do Matador out of both her Champion Song of the South bitch and CH Regal’s Pretty Woman.

Jane became active in her local specialty clubs (The Cocker Spaniel Specialty Club of Georgia and the Chattanooga Cocker Spaniel Club).  She also became a member of her local all-breed club, The Montgomery, AL, Kennel Club.  She served all of them in various capacities, such as the show chair hospitality chair, but always the ring steward or chief ring steward.

However, the club to which she donated most of her considerable skill was the American Spaniel Club. Over her years of membership, she served in various capacities as a board member, 1st Vice President, and President of the Club.  She unexpectedly assumed the presidency when her predecessor experienced a health crisis.  A relatively new treasurer absconded with the club treasury less than a year later.  Jane met this would-be catastrophe with her typical Southern grace and grit.  She organized the board, ensured the club treasury was replenished with insurance proceeds, and held the miscreant accountable.

Less than 4 months later, the 2007 National Specialty went off without a hitch. Jane organized a Town Hall meeting that continues today to answer members’ questions in an open forum.

As well as serving on the Board of Directors of the ASC Foundation for several years, during the entire 25+ years she was a member of ASC, she volunteered her time first as a ring steward, then as a chief ring steward for both the Flushing Spaniel Show and the National Specialty.  From 2014 on, while continuing as chief ring steward, she took on the unenviable task of show chair for the multi-breed Flushing Spaniel Show.  She also capably functioned as the judges’ hospitality point and arranged for worker and exhibitor hospitality.

Reviewing Jane’s contributions to the American Spaniel Club, it is apparent that her contributions have significantly impacted the club and why she should be inducted into the Hall of Fame for Service to the Club.

Jean Delisle and Pierre Talbot – 2025 – Contributions to the Breed

Remember how difficult it was to research pedigrees in the dark ages of the 20th century? You could order one from a professional pedigree researcher, purchase one from AKC, or rely on a handwritten pedigree by a breeder-owner. However, those pedigrees provided limited information about the dogs beyond their names and AKC registration numbers.

In 2005, Annette Hagglund from Sweden and Pauline Reintee from Canada created the Cocker Spaniel Pedigree Service database to share the pedigrees they had been collecting with the fancy. Unfortunately, Annette passed away unexpectedly in 2010, and Pauline was unable to access that site. That same year, Jean Delisle and Pauline created a new website and database, and cockers-worldwide.com was established. Pauline was recognized for her work in 2014 and was inducted into the ASC Hall of Fame. She passed away a year later.

After Pauline’s death, Jean took over the site with the assistance of his partner, Pierre Talbot. They expanded the information on the site and have spent countless hours developing and funding this valuable website’s hosting, development, and maintenance.

The website has a worldwide reputation for providing accurate and high-quality information for breeders and fanciers alike. Even ASC Foundation cataract researchers have extensively used the pedigree database. In addition to the standard pedigree everyone is used to seeing, under breeding information, the site lists half-siblings on both the sire’s and dam’s side of the pedigree, as well as breedings and the offspring resulting from each breeding. It also provides a coefficient of inbreeding as well as reverse pedigrees to identify producers of producers.

Today, with over 190,000 Pedigrees of (American) Cocker Spaniels on the website, the site averaged approximately 350,000 visits in the first six months of 2024; Jean and Pierre offer it at no charge as a service to the fancy, enabling (American) Cocker Spaniel breeders to make intelligent breeding decisions.   For this reason, we inducted Jean and Pierre into the American Spaniel Club Hall of Fame for Service to the Breed.

Calvin and Dale Ward – 2022 – Contribution to the Breed

Calvin and Dale joined the American Spaniel Club in 1972 and are life members who have been very influential in the breed. They chose the prefix Cottonwood, as a tie-in with their home state of Mississippi, and their farming of cotton at the time.

Calvin and Dale bred outstanding ASCOBS and Parti-Colors under the Cottonwood prefix with their great friend Charles Self doing the ring honors for many of their over 50 champions. Some of the most notable are Ch. Cottonwood Congressman, Scott, who is in the pedigrees of most, if not all of the great ASCOBS of today, and Ch. Cottonwood’s Colleen O’Brien, an outstanding bitch that was #1, was piloted by Donnie Johnston in the early ’80s. Their last champion was whelped in 2012.

Calvin and Dale Ward both became AKC judges and have judged at the ASC Flushing Spaniel Show and the Cocker Spaniel National many times. They have also judged at countless specialties in the US and overseas. Their opinions are sought out for their knowledge of the breed. Exhibitors can be ready to move many times, especially when they show to Calvin, as movement, outline, and merry temperament are hallmarks of the breed and their judging style.

Both Calvin and Dale have served on the Board of Directors many times, Calvin becoming President of ASC for 2 terms. They have served on many committees for ASC and are always available to help where needed to “make it work” and to help newcomers learn more to become better breeders and members. Special thanks to Dale for her time and hard work for being the ASC National 2020 Chairperson, which was held in 2021.

Calvin and Dale are wonderful mentors, and friends to all in our breed. They are generous with their time, their monetary donations, even helping to set up the shows, whenever a need arises. As active members for ASC they have dedicated a large part of their lives to our beautiful Cocker Spaniels and are deserving of membership in our Hall of Fame.

Kathy Patterson – 2022 – Contribution to the Organization

Kathy Patterson has served the club as Legal Counsel, Secretary, Editor of the “ASC Bulletin” Editor of the Purple Book, “Treasures of the American Spaniel Club”, and Editor of the “ASC Membership Directory”. She worked diligently with the Archives Committee in helping locate many treasures and procured information for the survival of our lost history of the breeders and their dogs. She was always ready to lend a hand to help new breeders and many of our breed club Secretaries as they walked their way through the show applications, advising and directing them throughout the process. She also co-chaired the ASC Show held in Cincinnati, one of the last shows we had with huge entries.

Ask anyone about the ASC organization and they will point you to Kathy. Upon Kathy’s retirement as ASC Secretary this year it took 3 people to fill her shoes. Thankfully we have not lost her vast amount of knowledge; she will continue serving as Alternate Zone II Director on the ASC Board.

Kathy is an AKC approved SPORTING GROUP judge and has judged at both of our January and July ASC Shows. She has had many other assignments both in the USA and in England.

Kathy never wanted to have a lot of dogs and ran her breeding program with her small kennel of cockers. They later became house pets when they finished their titles. She has finished both ASCOB and Black Champions under the Prefix “Show Me”. Both Kathy and Marilyn Spacht co-bred the dam of “Bart Simpson”, shown by Bob Covey. Bart’s record of 100 Best in Shows speaks for itself.

Kathleen Patterson’s many years of hard work for the club and accomplishments as a breeder, judge and mentor reflect her dedication to the breed and the American Spaniel Club. Kathy was inducted into the ASC Hall of Fame for her Contributions to the Organization, 2022.