Together Again!

Today is a day to be remembered by the Brannen family - by the Louis A. Brannen family, that is.  On this day, after more than 50 years, all of the original Louis A. Brannen family that are still living, have addresses in the same city.  That city happens to be Cleveland, TN. 

About 55 years ago we all lived in the same three bedroom, shotgun house that was the parsonage for the church that daddy pastored in New Orleans, LA.  Daddy was a minister and pastored churches.  We moved a lot.   I used to look at moving to another place as an adventure, full of excitement and expectation with apprehension.  One or two years in any one location was not uncommon, but Dad stayed in New Orleans for four years.  Now, about the time we left New Orleans, my oldest brother, Fred, joined the U S Coast Guard after finishing high school in Cleveland, TN at Lee Academy.  I can't remember if he joined the Guard While we were still in N.O. or if it was after we left there in 1956 when we moved to Ooltewah, TN.  Ooltewah is only about 15 miles from Cleveland.  Fred was was the first one of our clan to leave the "fold". 

The next of the Brannen's who flew away from the "coop" was my next to the oldest sibling, Wil, who also completed his high school education at Lee Academy and joined the U S Coast Guard shortly thereafter.  I'm not positive about the exact times these events took place but I do remember that we moved from Ooltewah, TN, after being there only one year, to Smithville, TN where I started high school at DeKalb County High School in 1957.  I do remember for certain, that I had my own bedroom in that house.

That left two of us kids under the watchful eye of Mom and Dad - Me and my sister, Bonita.  We stayed in Smithville for only one year and then we moved back to Louisiana to the city of Monroe.  Monroe is the city I have often referred to as my home town.  While living there, I graduated from Ouachita Parish High School, I began my ministry with the Church of God, I began my college career at Lee University in Cleveland, TN, I joined the U S Air Force, I met my first wife, Vera Gail Welch, and I met my second wife, and we are still married after 37 years.  A lot of reasons to call Monroe my home, and Bonita has probably just as many and even more reasons to call Monroe her home, but she too now lives in Cleveland, TN. 

The three of us boys were at one time separated from each other as far as Corpus Christi, TX, is from Nairobi, Kenya, Africa, is from Lake Charles, La, is from Corpus Christi, TX, and Bonita was in West Monroe, LA.  At some point during that span of time, Mom and Dad were in Tennessee.  I heard my Mom say that we were all in different states, except that Fred was in Africa.  To say the least, we have been scattered.

While I was still in high school, there was another sibling added to the family, Donice.  She lived with Mom and Dad mostly in Louisiana and then attended, Lee College in Cleveland, TN, where she became engulfed with Tennessee culture and made Tennessee here home.  She now lives in Cleveland, TN.  As a matter of fact, so does Fred, Bonita and myself.  Oh, don't forget my Mom.  She moved here too, after Dad passed away over eleven years ago while they were living in Athens, TN.  That put us all here in Cleveland except for Wil.

Today, Wil is moving to Cleveland, TN.  He is here with some of his belongings and the moving van is to be here tomorrow.  It's been about 50 years but it is amazing how things turn around.  Time goes on and things change.  I don't know how long it will remain this way, but while it is this way, I plan to enjoy it.  Who knows?  It might be that the Brannen Brothers will become something of value, or it might be the Brannen Family that becomes renown.  There is already a Branham Family of note here in Cleveland but if you noticed, the spelling is different.  BRANNEN and BRANHAM!  The Branham Family Singers are really good.  What will the Brannen Family or Brannen Brothers be?  Who knows.  Anyway, we are all here together.  Look out Cleveland, TN!