Deke Slayton's birth name is Slayton, Donald Kent.

Yes he had a dog. There was a article in People magazine that showed him with this family and his pet dog.

Donald "Deke" Slayton was one of the original seven NASA Astronauts. He was originally scheduled to fly on the 2nd American orbital mission in 1962 on a Mercury capsule named Delta 7. Because of an erratic heart rate, he was grounded and Scott Carpenter flew aboard Aurora 7 instead.

After going through a long medical program, Slayton was finally returned to flight status in 1972. In 1975, Slayton flew as the docking module pilot for the Apollo spacecraft on the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.

The address of the Slayton Public Library is: 2451 Broadway Av, Slayton, 56172 1100

Donald 'Deke' Slayton was selected in 1959 as one of the original American Mercury 7 astronauts but before he could fly in space he was found to suffer from a minor heart fibrilation.

Although still physically robust it was enough for flight surgeons to remove Slayton from flight status and he never flew a Mercury mission. He instead became chief of the astronaut office and was responsible for choosing crews for the Gemini and Apollo space programs.

In the early 1970's Slayton went back to the flight surgeons and his fibrilation was found to have ceased. He was placed back on flight status and in 1975 eventually did fly in space on board the Apollo-Soyuz test project, the last flight of an Apollo spacecraft.

Donald K Slayton thus did fly in space 16 years after being selected as an astronaut.