A Company of Heroes by Marcus Brotherton

Author:Marcus Brotherton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin USA, Inc.
Published: 2010-03-11T05:00:00+00:00

Ups and Downs

The Ranneys moved a ton, mostly due to Dad’s career and his constant ambition. He never seemed satisfied. There was always something better around the next corner. Dad worked his way up on newspapers in Red-field, South Dakota; Sioux City, Iowa; Minneapolis, Minnesota; then finally at the Chicago Tribune where he was a sports reporter, then moved out to California in 1959 to work for a public relations firm, which paid more. He worked most of the rest of his career in public relations, either for a firm or out on his own. Dad was always thinking about making his company bigger and better. He handled some large corporate clients in San Francisco. For the last years of his career, he went back to journalism and worked with several smaller papers in California.

In many ways he led a challenging adult life. His father passed away in 1947 of a stroke, about a year after Dad and Mom got married, and was sorely missed. Then, when Dad worked as a newspaperman, journalists in those days had the reputation of being “hard-nosed, two-fisted drinkers, which I had to maintain,” he wrote. He was ambitious and talented, and at one time was the youngest newspaper publisher in the state of South Dakota. He often worked nights at the various newspapers, not exactly prime family-man hours.

There were huge financial swings in the family. When I was growing up we were fairly well off. We had a nice house with two horses and an airplane. I remember playing with Susan Finn, Burr Smith’s daughter, when we were kids. We attended an Easy Company reunion in Las Vegas. My dad had his plane then. For some reason none of my other sisters wanted to go, so Dad flew my mom and me out to the reunion where we stayed at the Stardust Hotel and Casino. Dad was a big spender in those days and set up the hospitality suite for the men. I had charging privileges and enjoyed all the Shirley Temples and lemonades I wanted. Susan and I had a great time running around the pool.

By the time Mom and Dad got divorced in 1971, all the money was gone. I was in high school then, and he and Mom had been married for twenty-four years. Dad didn’t pay child support, and creditors and tax agents began to call Mom. She had been Phi Beta Kappa in university and could have done anything, but when they divorced she had no outside career to fall back on. After the divorce, Mom got a job as a teacher’s aide, went to San Francisco State University at night to get her teacher’s credentials, and also worked at Montgomery Ward at night. Having them both gone was very hard for the family. I think my two younger sisters took more of the brunt of it. I was not happy with my dad during that time.

Four years after their divorce, Mom and Dad remarried and moved to Minnesota because Dad had a new job offer.

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