Kathleen Lavey

Lansing State Journal

EAST LANSING – For nearly two decades, Wilson Brown – better known as “Willie the Can Man” -- was a familiar sight in East Lansing, pushing a shopping cart he referred to as his “Lexus” and collecting returnable bottles and cans.

“I used to pay him to mow my lawn,” recalled Ryan Plutchak, a 2010 Michigan State University graduate who lived on Hillcrest Avenue. Brown would help Plutchak and his roommates clean up the house after parties in exchange for the cans.

“One thing he always knew was the talk of the town. Whatever was going on, things that were happening,” Plutchak recalled Wednesday. “I still have one of his old T-shirts that I helped him to sell: ‘If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense.’”

Brown, 56, died Tuesday, after battling cancer.

He was often a welcome guest at East Lansing house parties and local events and would swap household tasks for cans or cash.

Luke Hackney is president of Retroduck, an East Lansing custom T-shirt firm that printed shirts for Brown to sell. The shirts were printed with slogans such as “Don’t be silly, give your cans to Willie,” and “Pride of East Lansing, doin’ that can thing." They’d give him the shirts in return for an advertising spot on them.

“Our friend Joe Houghton, who was our graphic designer at the time, he hand-drew something and we just kind of gave it to Willie and that is pretty much how it started and that went on for years,” he said.

Hackney visited Brown in the hospital recently. He recalls Brown as a teller of outrageous stories.

“How do I describe Willie?” he said. “He’s pretty funny, loud and boisterous and opinionated.”

Hackney held on to Brown’s important papers for safekeeping during the times when Brown’s living situation was fluid. He said Brown had moved into an apartment a couple of years ago.

Brown told the Lansing State Journal in 2007 that his past included an injury on the job while working with heavy machinery and a divorce and said he battled alcohol addiction.

His ex-wife, Sheleatha Davis-Brown, said Brown was originally from Arkansas and came to Michigan to work in construction. They have one daughter.

"He would give his last to anybody. He was just that type of person," she said. "He loved kids. He just enjoyed life to the fullest."

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Members of a Facebook group called “Willie the Can Man's Fan Club” recalled him changing a flat tire out of kindness, tilling a flower bed in exchange for a few cans and other acts of generosity.

Joe Manzella remembers Brown helping clean up after fraternity parties. He said Brown was generous despite his own hardships, even keeping tabs on another homeless person.

“There was a guy who was a Vietnam veteran,” Manzella said. “He’d kind of look after him a bit and keep an eye on him and make sure he was OK.”

Brown was a welcome guest at tailgating events, he said.

“He’d come by, and everybody would just be happy to see him,” he said. “He was just a really cool, genuine nice guy.”

Contact Kathleen Lavey at (517) 377-1251 or klavey@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @kathleenlavey.

Services

Visitation is set for 11 a.m. Dec. 28 with a service following at noon at New Life Community Church of God in Christ, 2107 W. Holmes Road, Lansing. Minister James Davis will officiate.

A Go Fund Me campaign to help his family with funeral expenses is at www.gofundme.com/williethecanman?ssid=847669762&pos=6