Beech Tree News Network

It's difficult, in a way, to write about my old friend, Brandon McKee- now gone from us some years. Difficult because, all of the things I would want and need to say would occupy too much time and space. Suffice to say, he was one of those people who grace our lives, and then are gone too soon from us.

One of the many things, and there were many likable things about Brandon was his sharing about his life. I had a front row seat, especially, one whole summer when we worked together in the summer school program. My job as agriculture teacher ran through the summer, and Brandon supervised a student work program at school. We shared the same office. During those summer months.

Brandon taught me much, and entertained me much. If I'm not bad wrong, he was exactly ten years my senior; same as my older brother, who now would have been 91.

One of the things he shared with me was when he was around 5 years old, his parents lived in Old Hickory, Tennessee. His dad worked at the Du Pont plant there. They lived on a dead-end street in Old Hickory, not far from the chemical plant where his dad worked. One afternoon a car came slowly down their street, turned around and stopped in front of their house. A well-dressed man got out and stood by the car. Brandon held his mother's hand as they walked out to see what the man wanted. He remembered the man being dressed in an expensive looking suit, and a snap-brimmed hat. He was very polite to Brandon's mother- "a very nice man" Brandon recalled.

The man didn't introduce himself; he just wanted to know directions on how to get back to the main road leading out of town. Brandon's mother directed him as best she could. He thanked her kindly, patted Brandon on the head, got back in the car and sat there.

As little Brandon and his mother made their way back toward the house, suddenly they heard sirens. When they looked toward the main highway at the mouth of their street, several police cars whizzed past. After the police were gone, the man in the car left.

Late that evening on the news, they heard that the notorious John Dillinger had robbed a bank in Nashville.

Kindest regards...