Donald H. Branson
Donald Branson was born in Huntington Beach, California, in 1909. He spent most of his life in the Easter Sierra area of California. He married Ruby Butler in 1942. They lived in Lone Pine and raised two sons.
Donald was very mechanical minded. He made a ski lift out of an old Model T Ford in the early 1940s, built a motel, managed the local water company, started the local television cable company in the late 1950s, and was a miner, mining gold, silver, and talc.
Throughout his life, he enjoyed gardening, hunting, cooking, baking, and tinkering with machines.
Donald died at the age of 96 in January 2006 in Lone Pine.
Ruby I. Branson
Ruby Butler Branson was born in Imperial Valley, California in 1913. Her family moved back to Arkansas shortly after she was born and then returned to California in the late 1920s. She was raised in the Downey area of Los Angeles. She received her BA and teaching credential from UCLA in 1937. After teaching for one year in Arizona, she moved to Lone Pine in 1938 and began teaching at the elementary school there.
She met Donald when he was installing the new plumbing at the school. They were married in Reno, Nevada, in April, 1942. Ruby enjoyed traveling with her sisters, hiking and camping with Donald, and sewing.
Ruby taught for 42 years in Lone Pine. After retirement, she worked in the television cable company office for over 20 years.