The American Beagler Forum

I was out yesterday running hounds when I got a call of the sad news that Gene had passed away on Valentines day. I had met Gene and his wife Marlene at a trial in Kentucky back in the 80's , very nice people for sure. The last 2 Octobers I had the pleasure of running hounds with him and some other fine gentlemen from Michigan. Gene at 86 years had a great since of humer , I congratulated him and his wife on getting in to THE BEAGLE HALL OF FAME in 2018 , he said " I asked them what the hell took you guys so long". That was Gene always having something funny to say . I enjoyed talking with him , his mind was still very sharp and he has seen so much over the years. Even if you don't run the style of dogs that Gene had you still need to take your hat off to one of the LEGENDS of all time in the beagle world. When I was up there in 2018 we had 26 dogs on the ground and he drove up by where I was standing and said to me " This is like old times , sad but most of my old running buddies have past away", he thanked me for coming up and running dogs , wow you can't imagine how that made me feel. If I'm fortunate enough to go up there this fall you can bet we will have a chase in memory of Gene Byers. If you have any memorys of him please post. Thanks Ron Preston

Sad news for sure,thanks for sharing Ron. I had the privilege of meeting him a couple of different times. Last time was about4 years ago we crossed paths on a cold January day I believe, we were running a section when he pulled up and asked if we were coyote hunters I told him no and turn your dogs out if you want which he did. Spent the next few hours getting a history lesson on the NMHA and a lot of old blood beagles and beaglers. Gene told me to get with him when I came back up and wanted to run and unfortunately I never made it happen, looks like another regret I will have to live with now.

a true legend