Many children grow up hearing the stories of Winnie the Pooh and his friends.
But few know the amazing story behind the real Winnie.
When Lindsay Mattick was expecting her son, Cole, she knew one day she'd want to share some family history with him, so she wrote a book about a soldier and a bear.
"My great-grandfather's story was not famous," she says. "It was not known. But without his, you don't have the other."
That's right. Before there was there was the Disney Winnie the Pooh, there was her great-grandfather's.
He buys the bear and names her Winnipeg, Winnie for short.
Harry Colebourn was her great-grandfather's name, and Winnipeg was his hometown. He was a veterinarian on his way to ship out for World War I when his train stopped in a small Canadian town.
"He gets off the train and there's a hunter there. And the hunter has killed a bear and he's selling the cubs for $20."
He bought a young female cub and took her across the Atlantic with him where "Winnie" became the mascot for Harry's regiment. That was fine while training in England, but when it came time to head to the frontlines in France, on December 9, 1914, he took Winnie to the zoo in London. He knew he had to keep Winnie safe.
"He planned to get Winnie at the end of the war, but clearly the war lasted four years and he realised at that point she had a new home," says Ms Mattick.
She had become a star attraction at the London Zoo.
"She did have a remarkable temperament. London zookeepers would let children inside her enclosure to play."
Among the kids entranced by Winnie was a boy named Christopher Robin.
"And his father, the author, starts writing children's stories."
AA Milne may have made the character famous, but Mr Colebourn made it possible, as Ms Mattick's book, Finding Winnie, shows us.
"That's powerful to know," she says, "that something you do in a moment can go on to have these incredible huge ripple effects that you never could even have imagined."
In all her many versions, Winnie has been making life sweeter for kids the world over for nearly a century now -- not a bad return on a $20 investment.
CBS News
