I have been off on vacation and was near Dallas, Texas, last week for a funeral. My Uncle Jim died last week, I attended the funeral with my sister, Sharon.

I am enclosing notes from CB Jackson and Dottie Hanlon, which I greatly appreciated, and the column. I think the column speaks for itself.

Dan,
 I’m sorry to hear of your uncle’s passing. Thank you for sharing your story about his impact on your life. It makes you look back at all of those, sometimes under appreciated, moments where people helped shape who we have become. I loved the article and reflected on it myself.
 
 CB Jackson

Dan,
Your column on your Uncle Jim was also very good.  You are right, I remember that Cardinal team and it was one of the greatest lineups.  A friend of mine who has a grandson who is about 10 and a pretty good ball player also has gotten into reading all the stats and turning on the sports network before going to school.  His grandmother told him that maybe in could go into sports reporting if playing the game doesn’t work out.   Sports are a great outlet for our youth today.
 
Keep up the good work!  We always enjoy reading your Sunday columns.
 
Dottie Hanlon

This was my Sunday column:

Through the years, I have experienced a series of life-changing events, some coming at the most unexpected of times.

One such event occurred more than 40 years ago in October 1967, when the St. Louis Cardinals played the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.

Somehow, my Uncle Jim Brannan arranged to have four tickets - we thought - to go to Game 4 of the World Series at Busch Stadium.

Uncle Jim coming up with tickets to the World Series shouldn’t have been a surprise to me, because he always came up with a trip or a time that you would never forget.
I learned of my Uncle Jim’s death while I was in the airport in Charlotte, N.C., last Sunday, while checking my e-mails. I was shocked at the news of his death, because I had talked to him on the telephone for about 45 minutes only a few days before. I guess it was destined that we have that last man-to-man conversation about life, because it covered the gamut.

Uncle Jim grew up in Eldred and was the only brother of my dad, Bob Brannan. As I sat in the funeral home for his service Tuesday in Denison, Texas, I remembered back to what my Uncle Jim did on that day in October 1967.

I can remember my dad coming to me and telling me, “Your Uncle Jim has tickets to the World Series game.”

I was only 7 years old at the time I received the news about the tickets. I remember I couldn’t sleep the night before the big game. I couldn’t believe I was going to get a chance to see a World Series game. Tickets were impossible to get then, like they are now. I was from Carrollton, a small community, and I didn’t get many opportunities as a child to go to Busch Stadium or St. Louis.

When we arrived at the stadium, there were four of us in our group, but when Jim picked up the tickets, there were only three of the precious ducats. I don’t know if Uncle Jim knew what to do at that point, but he came up with a quick plan.

“Danny is small enough that we can put him over the ledge to get in,” he schemed with my dad.
Jim went inside first and walked over to the side ledge of the stadium, and my dad hoisted me up to him. He grabbed me, and we started walking up the ramps to go into Busch. The next thing we discovered was we didn’t have seats, that the tickets were for standing room only.

When I got to where we were standing, I couldn’t see anything. I nearly had tears in my eyes. Then, Uncle Jim and my dad grabbed me again and created a seat for me on a trashcan. Uncle Jim got a box from somewhere to help make the seat.

Then, one of the greatest moments of my life happened; I had an opportunity to witness a World Series game in person.

It wasn’t just a World Series game. This was one of the greatest teams the St. Cardinals ever had. The Cards had Bob Gibson pitching; Tim McCarver catching; Orlando Cepeda at first base; Julian Javier at second base; Dal Maxvill at shortstop; Mike Shannon at third base; Lou Brock in left field; Curt Flood in center field; and Roger Maris in right field. That type of team just doesn’t happen anymore in baseball, in my opinion.
For Boston, Carl Yastrzemski, Reggie Smith and George Scott were the mainstay players. Jose Santiago was the starting pitcher for the Red Sox, although he only lasted two-thirds of an inning that day.

Gibson pitched a classic, shutting out the Red Sox, 6-0, on a five-hitter on the way to his second World Series MVP award. Before the game was over, I had pennants, a miniature baseball bat, a program, a Cardinals cap and much more to take home, thanks mostly to my Uncle Jim. My small World Series souvenir baseball bat today remains one of my most prized possessions.

Uncle Jim probably didn’t realize this, because I don’t know that I ever told him, but that day changed my life forever. I was so excited about watching the World Series game that I started reading the sports section of the Alton Evening Telegraph the next day and every day thereafter.

Soon, I started writing sports stories at home and developed a dream of being a professional sportswriter for a newspaper, which ultimately led to me becoming an editor.
In 1982, my dream of being a sportswriter came true when I became the sports editor for the Shelbyville Daily Union.

My point is, always realize that there may be a day for you that changes your entire life. My day was Oct. 8, 1967.

Without my Uncle Jim’s kindness, that never would have happened. My uncle will be missed by me, my sister and the rest of his family.

I have a feature story appearing about George Marshall of Alton catching the biggest fish of his life on the Mississippi River recently.

The catfish weighed 50 pounds and took everything he and another gentleman fishing next to him had to pull it into shore.

My dad’s mother and my dad loved to fish, so I have always had an affinity to the big fishing stories.

I think Marshall proves you are never to old to record the biggest catch of your life or for that matter, I don’t think age matters. If someone wants to do something, within reason I think they can do at any age.

I congratulate Mr. Marshall on his big catch and hope his family enjoys his mention in The Telegraph.

I spent time out surveying the water problems in Edwardsville on Monday and I wanted to say that I thought the Edwardsville fire and police on the scene handled the situation well.

It was not easy to watch all the intersections that were having problems and handle the various calls, but somehow, the fire and police officials came through.

The fire department was cautious with allowing people in and out of homes and I also think that was a good idea. I think about every other minute on Monday, the fire and police staff in the city had calls coming in about roads and homes.

Did you have an experience in Edwardsville, Holiday Shores Wood River, East Alton, or any of the other areas during the storm?

I would appreciate hearing your thoughts.

We continue to publish Veterans Voices articles each Monday in The Telegraph.

We are wondering if there are additional World War II veterans out there in The Telegraph readership that we still haven’t featured.

Eventually the Monday Our Everyday People feature will move on to Korean War veterans, but we want to make sure we finish with World War II veterans before we move on. We have thought even after we start with Korean War veterans, we will continue with World War II veterans until we don’t have any additional suggestions.

If you have a World War II profile that we haven’t done, I encourage you to e-mail me at dan_brannan@thetelegraph.com. Also if you have a Korean War profile suggestion, e-mail the same address.

I also wanted to tell the family of Ralph Butler how sorry I was for their loss this week. Butler died recently and was buried this week with full military honors. I wrote about Butler in the newspaper in a Life Story this week. He was a Korean prisoner of war who didn’t see daylight for six months during encampment. He made the ultimate in sacrifices for his country.

The high wind damage along Broadway in Alton kept The Telegraph staff busy through the night on Thursday and into Friday.

The Telegraph newsroom and other departments always work together as a team and I don’t think there was ever a better example than Thursday.

We were late with the paper, but we had almost a 3-hour delay because of power. We tried to make up the time and had to still publish the latest news of the storm. We had several people come in and help late Thursday on our different staffs. Without them, we wouldn’t have published on Friday morning.

I just wanted to say how proud I am of our newsroom staff and the efforts of all the efforts.

If you have any comments about the storm, send them to my blog.

This was a nice note following my blog about Cindy Winters. I wanted to share this person’s comments with you. If you have others, send them to my blog and I will post and share with Cindy.

I was hoping for some followup with the family of slain pastor Fred Winters and your story that is running on-line at The Telegraph’s website was outstanding.  Thank you for the good work and sensitive follow up with his family. 

I was born and raised in Alton, and since the passing of my Mom in 2006, I have kept The Telegraph on my list of news sources just to gently keep in touch with my home town.  When the shooting occurred, The Telegraph did a fine job of coverage…and your follow-up story was just as good.

Again, thank you for your sensitive handling of this family and their tragedy.  Thank you for sharing their pain with us so we know how to pray effectively.

Alan Cunningham
Madison, AL 35758

I wrote about Cindy Winters and her plight after losing her husband in a Page 1 Telegraph story on Monday.

I also have a column about her planned for Sunday with more insight from her after losing her husband, Rev. Fred Winters, in a senseless killing on March 8 at First Baptist Church in Maryville.

I am going to encourage churches and other organizations to contribute to a fund set up for the Winters family. Churches throughout the country are sending contributions to assist her and her children, so I hope we can do our part locally.

Here is an address of anyone who wishes to help. I sincerely appreciate people giving this consideration because I think it deserves our attention.

Anyone who wishes to contribute to a fund set up for the Winters family can send checks to any Scott Credit Union location and ask for the Winters Memorial Fund. Go online for more information at www.scu.org. The location in Edwardsville is at 1067 S. State, Route 157, Edwardsville, IL 62025, or call (618) 692-1200.

If you would like more information e-mail me at dan_brannan@thetelegraph.com

Something I enjoy most is when readers submit story suggestions to the newspaper and our Web site.

The Telegraph in Alton, Ill., is a location where readers do sincerely read and respond to the newspaper each day. I think people are more involved here with our paper than any other publication that I have worked.

Jeri Parks, a local real estate agent, recently sent me a post to my blog suggesting an Our Everyday People story idea. The story was on her friends Will and Tim Patridge and their band Timbaridge that visits area nursing homes. How could you say no to an idea like that one?

I encourage people with Our Everyday People ideas or other suggestions to e-mail my blog. I am always open to responses from the public. My e-mail is dan_brannan@thetelegraph.com.

I spent some of my day on Friday attending the funeral of World War II Army hero Russell Dunham at Gent Funeral Home in Godfrey.

Reporters Ande Yakstis and Kathie Bassett and Photo Editor John Badman went with me to the event. Mr. Dunham’s family was so gracious to us and I wanted to say how much we appreciated that. Bassett penned two extraordinary stories about Dunham, Yakstis had a memorable column and Badman contributed an array of photos from the historic event. I had the task of shooting video clips.

As many know, Dunham, of Jerseyville, was a recipient of the Medal of Honor in World War II. I was sad during the funeral and time at the cemetery. I always admired Russell for both his heroism and his humility. I have a column about him and some of my conversations with people at the funeral in Sunday’s Telegraph and Bassett and Yakstis had their stories in the Saturday newspaper. Badman did a terrific job with his photo page on Dunham’s funeral in the same newspaper.

Russell never viewed himself as a hero, but just an ordinary guy who did what he had to do in World War II.

One World War II person at the funeral had maybe the most compelling comment of all at the event, saying “They aren’t making them like they used to,” referring to the others associated with World War II service. I happen to wholeheartedly agree with him about that.

If you have a memory of Russell Dunham or if you want to pay him a short tribute, please e-mail my blog.

Steve Tassinari of Godfrey recently retired after 42 years of marketing many products for Xerox Corporation.

Tassinari has been involved in more community activities locally than he could ever chart, including working with the Alton-Godfrey Jacyees, Alton-Godfrey Rotary Club, Alton Symphony and Marquette High School. He was the creative chairman of the Robert Wadlow Statue Project and he started the Gordon F. Moore Service above Self Award.

Now that Tassinari has retired, he is going to turn his attention to fund-raising for Marquette Catholic High School. Tassinari is proud of the high school he also attended and hopes to help in fund-raising for the Alton Marquette Catholic Foundation.

I think it is astonishing that the Godfrey man made it 42 years working for Xerox. There have been many changes in Xerox, but Tassinari has always survived.

I hope Tassinari will enjoy his retirement. He will be featured in Our Everyday People of The Telegraph on Tuesday in a feature by Ande Yakstis. I am sure he will spend a lot of time with his grandchildren in his retirement.

I am proud of the Godfrey man for his life-long civic efforts and I can’t wait to see what he does to assist the region in the future. Don’t be surprised if he is knocking on your doorstep soon for Marquette Catholic.

If you have a few thoughts about the Godfrey man and his work in the community, e-mail my blog.