Melvindale Police Lt. Robert Kennaley (front left) joins Police Chief Dan Jones and River Rouge Police Animal Control Officer Brian Daugherty, along with other city officials, at the April 6 Melvindale City Council meeting to honor Daugherty’s late mother, Deborah Wilkins, known as “Nana,” who served Melvindale in animal control and code enforcement before becoming a police department administrative assistant.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
MELVINDALE – City officials honored the late Deborah Wilkins, longtime code enforcement and animal control officer, and Police Department administration assistant, with a hallway-mounted commemorative plaque at the April 6 City Council meeting.
Her son, River Rouge Police Animal Control Officer Brian Daugherty, was present at the meeting.
Affectionately known as “Nana,” Wilkins, 70, of Flat Rock, who died Oct. 22, 2021, had a passion for helping others, and during her 30-year law enforcement career she was a member of the Woodhaven police reserves, the Rockwood Police Department dispatch and the Lincoln Park Police Department dispatch.
Melvindale Police Chief Dan Jones said Wilkins was known for her love and kindness to animals, for helping anyone and for baking cookies for Police Department personnel.
“Nana loved working for the city, and there were times that she felt very sick from her cancer, but she still came in and worked,” he said. “She was very, very dedicated, and when she was unable to work, she would still call us and make sure everything was going good, and that we weren’t messing anything up.”
Jones said she meant a lot to the officers of the Police Department, and will be missed by them.
“We made this plaque to display in the hallway lobby as a remembrance to her for her many years of hard work and the dedication she provided to the police department,” he said.