Walter Thorpe Branson

Walter Thorpe Branson, son of Ivan Branson, was one of the small number of great-grandchildren of John Sevier Branson and Martha Jane Ousley that had not yet passed away when this website was created in 2005. As part of the policy of keeping information about living individuals confidential, this page has been here mostly as a placeholder, with minimal facts about him. That will soon change. Walter succumbed to CoVid-implicated pneumonia and heart damage 16 February 2022 at a hospital in Sacramento, CA. Some time in the near future, he will be honored with a biography in keeping with the others on the site. In the meantime, here is a brief summary of his life:

Walter was born 11 July 1963 in San Francisco. He was something of a “miracle baby” in that he was conceived when his mother was forty-two and his father almost sixty-two. Ivan had long since assumed he would never become a father because his first wife’s heart was not robust enough to risk a pregnancy, and considered himself fortunate that his second marriage had brought with it a pair of stepchildren, whom he adopted. Then, surprise, there was Walter. And two years later, in even more of a surprise, there was Walter’s little brother, Jim.

The boys came along while Ivan still owned and operated Morning Glory Sandwiches and Catering, but he soon sold the business and he and Linn settled for good into their retirement home, Mariposa Manor, in Penn Valley/Rough and Ready in Nevada County. Walter came of age as very much a Nevada County boy, never losing his affection for the locality, and spending the vast majority of his life as a resident. His workdays however were often spent elsewhere. During his five-year hitch in the Air Force, Walter became skilled in operating heavy earthmoving equipment, receiving his initial training at the Heavy Equipment School in Albuquerque. This expertise became the foundation of his civilian career. At any given time, he might be found helping to repair or build roads in various parts of the American West.

Walter was married three times. The first was a young local woman he wed right after high school. The union was brief, probably in part due to the fact that it began even as Walter’s Air Force hitch began. The couple had no children. After leaving the military, Walter wed Teresa Gail “Teri” Mullins. The wedding was held 22 July 1989 in Reno, NV. The relationship quickly yielded two daughters but then almost as quickly hit a rough patch. Walter and Teri went their separate ways. Walter soon began his longterm, until-death-them-did-part third marriage. It was he, with the help of this third wife, who raised the girls, because Teri Mullins Branson took her own life shortly before Christmas, 1993, perishing at only thirty-one years of age.

Walter was justifiably proud of his father’s achievements as a genealogist and was delighted by the creation of this website about the Branson-Ousley family. His father’s accumulation of photos and research materials was essential in its creation. Walter never stinted on making that trove available. He also took the trouble to donate a DNA sample for additional family-history purposes. One of his joys was exploring the old family sites back in Mariposa County, and being part of the reunions Ivan organized.

Walter was not only a father to his biological offspring, but to a stepdaughter and two stepsons as well. The latter trio were in their teens when he entered their lives, so he played a limited role in raising them, but treasured them as his own. At the time of his passing he was a grandfather multiple times over, including his four biological grandchildren.

(The picture at the upper left is from a Christmas card sent to relatives when Walter was a toddler, so that the kinfolk could see the “miracle baby.” The picture in the center is Walter and his third wife -- now his widow -- early in their relationship.)

To go back one generation, click here. To return to the Branson/Ousley Family main page, click here.