Interview with Stuart Brannon

Stuart Brannon



Janet Chester Bly
Copyright©2012





JCB: Stuart, how come you’re not too fond of Christmas time?




BRANNON: Oh, I enjoy celebrating the birth of Jesus my Savior. It’s
just that Christmas also brings some tough memories … lost my wife
and baby back in 1875 on Christmas Day. Then, after my cattle got wiped
out with the disease, riding through a bitter blizzard to a hard winter
at Broken Arrow Crossing the Christmas of ’76. Tended to a wounded
prospector, an abused, pregnant Indian girl, and faced off with a band
of wild outlaws. All that comes rushing back on a blustery December day.







JCB: Did you ever have any children after that?




BRANNON: I adopted 12-year-old Littlefoot, a Nezperce Indian boy,
back in ’88. He later married and gifted me with a passel of grandkids.
They’re my pride and joy.




JCB: Relate a bit of your background. What have you done in your life?




BRANNON: I trailed several cattle drives to Kansas, scouted for the
U.S. Army, prospected for gold in Colorado. I served as marshal in New
Mexico and Colorado and battled phony Spanish land grants, then drove one of the earliest large herds of Mexican cattle north into Arizona Territory.




JCB: I read somewhere that you twice refused appointment as Arizona Territorial Governor.




BRANNON: Yep. Men with violent pasts make inferior lawmakers.




JCB: So, you consider yourself a violent man?




BRANNON: Nope. Out of necessity, I’ve had to endure many a fierce gunfight.




JCB: In Gearhart, Oregon, in 1905, you’ve still got a full head of
hair, though it’s pure gray, and you still seem a formidable man to
tackle. What’s your biggest challenge these days?




BRANNON: Finding my missing friend, U.S. Marshal Tom Wiseman … and
golf. I suffer the affects of my many injuries over the years. That
hampers long rides on my horse Tres Vientos and driving a ball on a
course.




JCB: I didn’t realize you enjoyed playing golf.




BRANNON: I don’t. As a favor to Lady Harriet Reed-Fletcher, I’m trying to learn to play
the fool game so’s I can participate in her charity celebrity
tournament, on behalf of the Willamette Orphan Farm. The crook of my
arms, the way they work after all these years, I aim straight and the
ball hooks right. If I shoot to the right, the ball flies down the
middle. I guess that’s part of my handicap.




JCB: Ahh, Lady Fletcher, wasn’t she a former lady friend, that is,
wasn’t her husband, Lord Edwin Fletcher, a trail partner of yours in the
old days?




BRANNON: When I first met Edwin Fletcher, he was half-froze and
lookin’ for gold at the Little Yellowjacket. Before that, he told me
he’d been in northern India trying to keep the Monguls and Hindus from
killing each other. The last ten years he’s mostly been sitting around
English gardens sipping tea and managing world affairs. Dreadfully
boring, don’t ya think?




JCB: You miss the old days?




BRANNON: I don’t miss the backbreaking work of single-handed keeping
bad guys under control. But I do miss the sense that we lived in
momentous, history making times.




JCB: Tell me something about your faith.




BRANNON: I talked to God before I knew his name and long before we
were properly introduced. My creed is duty to decency, mankind and God.
That’s why I get involved. Law, decency, the will of God and future
generations demand this country be safe for women, children and
families. That’s who I am.




JCB: You’ve traveled and trailed a lot of places. Where do you consider home to be?




BRANNON: Arizona bears my camp. My ranch. My outfit. And its
citizens, my brothers and sisters. They’re my tribe. The west of the
future belongs to my descendants, my offspring, my legacy. I find myself
almost possessive about the west that is yet to come.




JCB: Stuart Brannon, you’re quite a legend, right up there with Wild
Bill Hickok and the Earp brothers. How does that make you feel?




BRANNON: I don’t see it that way. When they take the great photograph
of mankind’s family reunion, I’ll be the one in the tenth row from the
back, fifth from the end, who is partially blocked by the lady in the
big hat. I’m the one staring down at my scuffed dirt brown boots. But
that doesn’t mean I haven’t had a shining moment or two.




JCB: Any last words you’d like to share?




BRANNON: By the time a man figures out what he is missing, it’s
already gone. This is my daily philosophy: we have the opportunity to
saddle up this day and ride it into our memories. But that means staying
awake.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Also featured on Ralene Burke's blog: http://www.raleneburke.com/2013/01/character-tour-stuart-brannons-final-shot-by-janet-bly/