Friends, coworkers remember longtime Cambrian columnist John Brannon

As he wished, John Brannon will return to his beloved Moonstone Beach later this summer.

That’s when his children Lisa, Roger, and Jana come to scatter his ashes at his favorite spot. John passed away last week after spending six years in Orange County in retirement from his decades as a Cambrian columnist and sports reporter.

Those of us who were privileged to work with John delighted in his witty repartee and his insistence that he knew all things factual and trivial.

“Do you know how the fuchsia was named?” he repeated almost every time we met. That twinkle in his eye and the broad grin that accompanied it were trademarks which extended to all his fans and friends throughout the community.

Through his popular column and our conversations, we knew that John “loved his star-filled skies, Beans & Buns for morning coffee and pastry at the beach, and walks on the Fiscalini Ranch,” Lisa said, “and his solo car drives up Santa Rosa Creek Road just to check the water flow.”

“He took me on that drive, which I will always treasure on my every visit,” she recalled. “He loved showing me the wild sweet peas growing on the side of the road. He took in the beauty of Cambria each day, like he had never seen it before, and was never jaded to it!”

John once described our newspaper’s staff as being so small we could all fit in a phone booth.

We all could write volumes about John, so it is difficult to encapsulate our feelings.

He and I shared a Dec. 7 birthday, and after reading his “stuff” for years before moving here full time, I said I would give my eyeteeth to work with him. He reminded me of that every year.

One day, back when Bill Morem was editor, I entered the Cambrian office and “Biff” Brannon said, “Whatever you do, do not mention ‘Riverdance!’ ” I mentioned it, and Morem broke into a spirited Irish jig.

John roundly chastised us both but with that inimitable chuckle. There were always spirited exchanges between John and his buddy, Art Van Rhyn, enlivening the office with acerbic but never offensive wit.

According to Susan McDonald, “John was a favorite columnist when I was editor of The Cambrian in the mid-90s, but what really drew us together was a column he wrote years earlier about saving the ramshackle Bianchini House.

“Like many of his columns, this one encouraged community support for a cause near and dear to his heart: historic preservation. And like many of his readers, I was hooked. “We met for coffee one afternoon and plotted how the Cambria Historical Society, of which he was a board member, might acquire the house and eventually restore it as a museum.

“The rest, as they say, is history. Or, as John would quietly remind me whenever we’d meet, ‘It all began with a cup of coffee.’ ”

Cambrian reporter Kathe Tanner recalled John’s fondness for the belladonnas that bloom in the fall around the house and throughout the town, but he naughtily referred to them by their common name, naked ladies.

Over the years, John penned more than 700 “My Turn” columns for The Cambrian, some half-million words.

“No other writer was more passionate in their love for Cambria,” said Bert Etling, Brannon’s editor at the Cambria weekly for 14 years. “He said he was a fireman, not a writer, but the love and sensitivity he put into his stories brought them alive on the page. His topics were many, but every one showed the care he put into them.

“He used to say he was so emotional he’d tear up reading the phone book,” Bert said. “Turns out it was a strength that made his writing more intimate. Whether his topic was kids overcoming hardships, memories of his growing up years or ways to make Cambria better, it always felt John was pushing his emotional envelope, and always in a positive way.”

Six years ago, John chose to be with family where he had grown up and served as a captain in the Newport Beach Fire Department for 25 years. But he always wanted this to be said about him when scattering his ashes:

“Cambria — I have always loved the beauty of this place and now I’m part of it.”

According to Roger Brannon, remembrances for John may be made to the Cambria Historical Society Schoolhouse Restoration Project, P.O. Box 906, Cambria CA, 93428.