BOMBER MEMORIAL
KRISTI ILEENE HARMON BRANHAM ~ Class of 1967
March 31, 1949 - February 17, 2019
~
Kristi was born March 31, 1949 to Mr. and Mr. Kent M. Harmon. She attended Chief Jo Junior High School and graduated with the Class of 1967 from Richland's Columbia High School.
She passed away February 17, 2019.
Her siblings were: David Kent Harmon ('61), Claudia Harmon (Marvin) ('63) Gale, Peter Harmon ('68RIP) and Gary Louis Harmon ('71).
Written by Kristi for the 40-year Reunion from her home in Wisconsin:
"I married Kevin Branham from Eagle River, Wisconsin, in 1974. We have five daughters living: Kiirsi, Kaari, Kaatia, Kimi and Kirah. Our only son is Kavi. So far we have ten gorgeous grandchildren--seven boys and three girls. Kavi just returned from a 2-year mission for our church in Austria and southern Germany and went back to school at BYU-Idaho in September, planning to transfer to BYU-Provo next year to complete his major (no wife yet). Kirah, 14, has Down Syndrome and is our wonder child; she keeps us young. All of our children were born at home, and I home-schooled all of them until some point in high school. All the girls have graduated from college and are home-schooling their little ones. Our son is working towards a degree in Family and Marriage Counseling, as well as teaching religion on the college level. Kirah loves to draw, play basketball/softball/soccer, sing and watch movies. My husband, Kevin, is a holistic chiropractor and does house calls from northern Wisconsin to Chicago and beyond once a month. He is very involved in alternative medicine and green building and renewable energy materials and resources.
We still live smack in the middle of the woods, 18 miles from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan below Lake Superior and process all our firewood for heat, grow much of our food, cook and sew everything from scratch, and spend much of our time in survival mode. I have spent all of my married life teaching, whether at home or church or in a 4-H community. I am working on three books and hope to publish next year--took a long break to raise kids and sub in the public schools for four years. I work a great deal with special kids and their families, cheer at Kirah's games, sew and quilt, read and do all that I can to be a long-distance grandma, as well as work with the children at church, accompany the music in meetings and teach in two adult classes there. In short, I am pretty busy.
I have been a full-time mom and teacher at home for many years, taking out four years to sub as a CD/ED teacher in the public school system, as well as a teacher in any class from grade K-12 with special needs kids in the class. I have also run our family natural foods store for years, served as Kevin's assistant and bookkeeper in his business. Now I'm working at home again, concentrating on finishing my first children's book and two "family" books; one about our five-year old angel who died in 1995 and one about Down Syndrome and Kirah.
After high school graduation, I lived in Provo for five years, attending Brigham Young University. I served as a missionary in France from 1972-1974, then married Kevin and returned to BYU to work on a Master's Degree, then moved to Naperville, IL, while Kevin went to chiropractic school. Finally we moved back up here to the Northwoods of Wisconsin in 1980.
I've traveled to France, the western U. S. and the Midwest.
What's retirement? I can't relate.
I've served as a lay midwife for many years, delivering about 60 babies, home-schooled all my kids, taken in runaways and foster kids and schooled and loved them, and I love a good swing! One challenging thing is that I suffered an extreme memory loss in a near-death experience twenty years ago and remember almost nothing of my childhood and youth, early mariage, etc. It comes back in bits and pieces like an advent calendar, but I remember almost nothing and no one from high school. I'm hoping that bio graphics and pictures in the future will help fill in the gaps."
Bomber Memorial put together by Shirley COLLINGS Haskins ('66).