Robert Cowey Brannon Jr., was
born in Bluefield on April 25, 1957, to the late Robert C. and Polly Brannon. She was the
jovial, tireless secretary at Christ Episcopal Church on Duhring Street. He was a
pharmaceutical salesman for Abbot Labs and a drummer in the Robert Bruce Orchestra, a
nine-piece jazz, swing and bebop band. Little
Robby and his sister Missy, born a year later, grew up in a house atop Washington Street
full of jam sessions and laughter.
With Fred Cannon on sax, Bud Gentry on stand-up bass, Doug
Crutchfield on guitar and Paul Thomas and Garland Bruce playing piano, Bob Brannon drummed
into his children the value of friends. Their
resounding compliment was, “You’re as funny and talented as your Dad.”
Missy was a second grader, and Rob in third grade, when their
father suffered a fatal heart attack. The
neighborhood, area musicians and the church community rushed in. With their help Polly raised her son to be a
husband, a father, a brother, and a friend.
He became a drummer, a firefighter, a church sexton, an
engineer, a student, a teacher, a joiner and an organizer, a computer programmer, salesman
and website designer, a painter, an electrician,a carpenter, a stone worker and a problem
fixer. He was a golfer, an avid reader and
writer, as well as a fountain of creativity and common sense.
He played catcher in little league, and peanut league
football, and played shooting guard for Coach Howard Hill’s Fairview Falcons
Basketball Team. He was a student body leader
at Fairview Junior High and Beaver High, and was a writer, a columnist and an editor for
The Beaver Press. After Brannon,
fellow staff members and faculty advisor Bob Harrison attended a journalism workshop at
Kent State University, the paper was renamed The Hill Hippy. Brannon wrote for Editor Gerald Steele, who later
became a fire chief.
He did his drumming and singing for Mainline East, a rock
band playing all the raucous, soulful songs of the day (featuring Randy Music on
keyboards, Jim Funari on bass, Ran Henry on guitar and vocals and David Strupp and David
Humphreys on lead vocal). The band performed
at area schools, for dances and assemblies, and on a flat bed truck at Bluefield High
during student body elections – until assistant principal Ray Furrow pulled the power
plug during “Space Trucking”, and only Robby’s drumming reverberated off
the mountainside.
With his friends he saw every 70s rock band worth seeing, and
was thrilled when his future brother-in-law, Pierce Daniel Bratton, cut an album with
local rockers Sweet Tooth. He was an alumnus
of West Virginia University, where he rooted hard for the “Eers”, and received
business and engineering degrees from Bluefield State College.
In
1978, a year after his buddy John Baker joined the Bluefield Fire Department, Brannon
signed up too. He fought countless fires,
worked his way up to lieutenant and fire inspector, and took Sparky and the Fire
Prevention show to area school kids. He
almost single-handedly brought the fire department into the computer age, and also
installed and programmed computers for the city of Bluefield’s Engineering
Department. He helped his comrades on
and off the job. In July 1985, his mother
Polly also died of heart failure. Her son
immediately assumed care of Christ Episcopal Church.
As Secretary and Sexton, he answered phones and wrote reports, waxed floors and
polished woodwork, fixed boilers, exorcised electrical demons and salved bruised egos.
He also served on the Vestry and a host of other committees, putting up the
annually huge Christmas tree, writing and editing the newsletter, and showing his sons all
the moves of an acolyte. There’s not an
inch of Christ Episcopal Church his hands didn’t help.
If any grass grew under his feet he mowed it.
On Aug. 30, 1986, under rain clouds and rainbows, he married
the love of his life, the former Cindy Clayton of Bluefield, at the altar of Christ
Episcopal Church.
He loved the Mountaineers, the Bluefield Orioles and any team
his sons played on. He spent hours teaching
them computer skills. He loved to joke with
his wife, and help her and his sister root for the Redskins. He enjoyed camping, rafting, playing golf with
his father-in-law and helping anyone with anything.
He was also president of the Whishtew Foundation, a
charitable organization in memory of John Baker, who died in a motorcycle wreck almost
exactly 12 years before.
This year he exulted when son Jonathan took the top score in
the Social Studies Fair at Whitethorn Elementary for “What Made America Love
Lucy”, earning the only perfect score and competing countywide. He loved watching his elder son learn to snow
ski, and treasured his impassioned letter to the Telegraph editor about keeping Bluefield
College’s sled slopes open. He was
astounded, but shouldn’t have been, when his youngest son Jeffrey, then three, sat at
the keyboard mastering Myst, Titanic and SimCity.
Late last summer, Brannon mourned the passing of Father Bill
Morgan, pastor of Christ Episcopal Church, spiritual advisor, and friend. He spent his final months helping the church find
a new pastor, and urging the city of Bluefield to rethink cutbacks to the budget and
manpower of the fire department. He spent his
43rd birthday, the day before his heart attack, quelling a morning fire and
addressing an evening session of the city board, imploring city fathers to reconsider the
budget cuts.
He spent his final days at BCRH protected by the constant
vigil of the men with whom he fought fires. He
spent his last afternoon off helping a friend plant walnut seedlings in the cool Bland
County earth, to green the lives of our children’s children.
He is survived by his wife Cindy, sister Kimberly Grey
(Missy) and brother-in-law Pierce Daniel Bratton, two children, Jonathan Edward, 11, and
Jeffrey Daniel, 4, and a full orchestra of family and friends.
A whole community, not just one man, has lost a big heart. |
 
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