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Harold Branam was in his element for his 83rd birthday in 2015; eating something sweet at WLAF.
By Jim Freeman
LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF) – It was a hamburger lunch in the late 1980s at the Riggs Drug Grill that sparked Harold Branam‘s decades long radio career. Mary Wilson, Harold’s sister, served up lunch at my booth way past lunch time that afternoon.
Since the lunch rush was over, she and I chatted a bit and some how the topic of radio came up, and Mary said Harold has always wanted to be on the radio. I said we had a Saturday morning opening for someone to play bluegrass music. “Oh, he loves bluegrass,” she exclaimed. I’m thinking this is too good to be true.
Harold was an insurance salesman, and there were not many days that passed that I didn’t see him out on his route. When I saw him that afternoon, I waved him over. We parked car-to-car in the parking lot at First Independent Missionary Baptist Church on East Beech Street. “Mary tells me you’ve always wanted to be on the radio,” I said. “Yep, I love it,” Harold shot back. I asked him if he would be interested in handling the Saturday morning bluegrass show, and he quickly asked “When do I start?” This Saturday. “I’ll be there,” Harold said.
WLAF’s Denny Orick trained Harold the next Saturday, and Harold was off an announcing. “Denny did such a great job of training me,” Harold recalled years later.
In addition to his Saturday morning gig, he’d fill in at night some all the while working his daytime insurance job. It didn’t take long for Harold to put together a game plan. He soon declared that once he retired at age 62, he’d switch to radio all the time, and he did.
Even though Harold’s been gone from WLAF for years, his absence still leaves a void that will likely never be filled. His passing on Thursday morning stirred lots of fond memories.
Harold Branam was celebrated on his 83rd birthday at WLAF. David Graham even let HB pose for a photo in his Mustang GT.
Harold was a smart man with much more common sense than most. And he had such a wonderful sense of humor.
At the insurance office, the boss listed the top salesmen all the way down to the bottom salesman. He was encouraging the staff that it needed to be working harder to bring up their numbers; especially the man in last place. Harold pointed out that no matter how well the office did, there is always going to be someone at the bottom of the list.
A Harold-ism was “Have a nice day. Unless you have other plans.”
Harold was a snacker. When he worked, he always had a snack with him whether it be a candy bar, Little Debbie Cake or something else; most always something sweet. HB, as he was known, was a slim built man, and we used to laugh that most people who ate like he did would be a hundred pounds overweight.
During Harold’s Thursday night bluegrass show, his pal Gene Hobbs was generally in the studio with him. Most of those evenings, Hobbs would bring food, usually a sack full of pool room hot dogs.
Harold was at home at La Follette Court Assisted Living for this Winter of 2019 photo.
Soon after the passing of Carolyn, the woman Harold called “my sweet wife,” we invited him to drive down from his home at Duff to the radio station and eat lunch with us. After he moved to La Follette Court Assisted Living, he would still come over for lunch. Those visits faded away with HB telling us the food was just too good at LCAL to not eat there. That prompted many of us to visit him there.
Guess it was only fitting that it was over food when the idea of Harold coming to WLAF came about. We’re gonna miss you, HB, especially when there’s something sweet around to eat. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 09/04/2020-6AM-PHOTOS COURTESY OF WLAF’S ANN RUTHERFORD)