During the decades of the 1930s and 1940s, Richard Brautigan was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, moved about the region frequently with his family, and settled in Eugene, Oregon, where he attended junior high school. More information and resources about Brautigan, his life, and work during these decades are below.

Use the links above to access information and resources about Brautigan's life during other decades.
Richard Gary Brautigan born in Tacoma, Washington, oldest child of Bernard F. Brautigan, Jr. and Lulu Mary Keho, known as Mary Lou. Bernard, of Tacoma, a laborer, was twenty seven. Mary Lou, of Missouri, was twenty three. Richard was her first child.

Most accounts agree that Bernard and Mary Lou separated prior to Brautigan's birth. There is less agreement, however, regarding who knew about Mary Lou's pregnancy. For example, Brautigan's daughter, Ianthe, writes in her memoir about her father, You Can't Catch Death, that Mary Lou and Bernard separated before Brautigan was born, before she knew she was pregnant (Ianthe Brautigan 160).

Whether or not Bernard knew about Mary Lou's pregnancy, or about the birth of Richard Brautigan, he is stated as the father on the State of Washington Birth Certificate issued at the time of Brautigan's birth.

Another point both confusing and clear is that there was very little contact between Bernard and Richard Brautigan. According to several obituaries published at the time of Richard Brautigan's death in 1984, Bernard said he never knew Richard was his son, or even that he had a son named Richard Brautigan.

• An article, "Bernard Brautigan," in the Detroit Free Press. More . . .
• A UPI news feed. Bernard denies any knowledge of his son, Richard Brautigan. Information about Bernard's relationship with other members of the Brautigan family. More . . .

Adding to the confusion, and the myth associated with Brautigan's life are the accounts that he and his father met only twice, briefly. Ianthe Brautigan said,

My father [Richard Brautigan] said he met [his father] only twice. When he was about four, Mary Lou had pushed him into a room with his father. My father watched him shave without saying a word and then his father handed him a dollar. And the second time my father was about six or seven and passed [his father] on a street near the restaurant where his mother was working as a cashier. His father stopped and said hello and gave him fifty cents. (Ianthe Brautigan 196)

Keith Abbott's recollections were different, yet very similar. Abbott said,

[Brautigan] claimed that he had only met his father twice. The first time was in a hotel where, "I was pushed into this room and a man there gave me a silver dollar to go see a movie." The second time he saw his father he was in a barbershop. "He had shaving cream all over his face and I said who I was and he gave me some money to see a movie that time, too." (Abbott 100)

Surrounding these similiar but different accounts is the notion of bad feelings between Brautigan's parents. They apparently had no contact during Brautigan's life, a period of nearly fifty years. An article by Mark Barabak in the San Francisco Chronicle, five days after Brautigan's body was discovered, titled "Brautigan's Suicide Rekindles Bad Feelings" quotes Bernard, Mary Lou, and her sister, Evelyn (Keho) Fjetland, regarding who knew what and when. All parties seek to place blame and conflict arises anew.

Mary Lou, a single mother, and Brautigan reportedly lived above a candy factory in Tacoma, Washington. Brautigan spent the first eight years of his life in Tacoma, growing up in bleak poverty, neglect, and abuse (Ianthe Brautigan 160, 195, 196).

Sister, Barbara born. Arthur Martin Titland is regarded as Barbara's father. There is no record that Mary Lou and Titland were ever married. Titland was the first of several "stepfathers," as Brautigan called them. More . . .


Brautigan, growing up in Tacoma, was surrounded by World War II. Fort Lewis was located nearby, and Tacoma itself was a major staging point for aircraft headed into the Pacific Theater. In one of his notebooks, this one dated 1976, Brautigan recounts the intersection of his childhood and the war effort.

I was raised on war newsreels. Films taken of bombs falling on Germany . . . of battleships shelling islands in the South Pacific. I was raised on war.

In another notebook, dated 1975, Brautigan remembers "the first time I saw a Flying Fortress."

In the short story "The Ghost Children of Tacoma," collected in Revenge of the Lawn, Brautigan wrote

The children of Tacoma, Washington, went to war in December 1941. It seemed like the thing to do, following in the footsteps of their parents and other grown-ups who acted as if they knew what was happening. . . . Children can kill imaginary enemies just as well as adults can kill real enemies. It went on for years. (73)

Brautigan recounted, in his story, killing imaginary enemies and playing airplane in the house with his sister. Brautigan, his sister Barbara, and his mother, Mary Lou, moved about the Northwest, perhaps following Robert Geoffrey Porterfield (born 9 August 1904 in Deadwood, South Dakota; died 22 March 1969 in Reno, Nevada), Mary Lou's second husband (married 20 September 1943; divorced 12 July 1950). Porterfield, a cook, apparently traveled to find work.

Reportedly, Mary Lou frequently left Brautigan and his sister Barbara with others while she worked, or as some speculate, pursued a life unencumbered by her children.

Brautigan often related a story about being left alone in a hotel room in Great Falls, Montana with one of his stepfathers, Porterfield.

My mother left me in Great Falls alone with one of my stepfathers, who was a fry cook. I would eat meals at his place and lived in a hotel room by myself. I was seven years old. (Ianthe Brautigan 89)

Rip Torn provided this variation on the story:

Legend has it that Richard's mother was a barmaid, a good-hearted woman with lots of boyfriends. She had a baby boy and an older girl [actually, Richard was older than his sister, Barbara] and sometimes abandoned them for long periods to run and throw a fling. Richard told me that, at about age four, his mother took his sister and left him in the care of a boyfriend, a fry-cook who lived in a corner room of an old hotel and worked in the kitchen below. The fry-cook, having no funds for a baby-sitter, tied Richard to the bedpost. Richard remembered this man with affection. "He gave me enough slack so I could get to the can and, more important, I could get to the corner and look out the window." (Rip Torn 134)

Lawrence Wright reported yet another version of this story, saying both Brautigan and his sister, Barbara, were abandoned in a hotel room in Great Falls, Montana by their mother. Brautigan, age nine, was expected to take care of Barbara, age four. In the mornings, Mr. Porterfield [Brautigan's stepfather], a cook, made breakfast for Brautigan in the hotel restaurant and gave him a dollar. Brautigan and Barbara played in the railroad yards, waving at passengers in passing trains, and skating in their shoes on a frozen pond. Eventually, their mother reclaimed them and took them home to Tacoma, Washington. Soon afterwards they moved to Eugene, Oregon (Lawrence Wright 40).

Keith Abbott related the same story, second hand. He said he was told by Ianthe Brautigan, who said she was told by Brautigan, that both Brautigan and his sister were abandoned in a Great Falls hotel. Brautigan was expected to be the sole support for his sister. They were fed by a sympathetic cook in the hotel. She said her father told her he could not sleep at night, that he stayed awake waiting for his mother to return, and that he suffered from insomnia ever since (Keith Abbott 43). Brautigan, his mother, stepsister Barbara, and stepfather Porterfield moved to Eugene, Oregon. April 1
Stepsister Sandra Jean Porterfield born 1 April 1945. Her father was Robert Jeffrey Porterfield.

Attended Grade 5 at Lincoln Elementary School in Eugene, Oregon. Attended Grade 6 at Lincoln Elementary School in Eugene, Oregon. This Grade 6 class photograph shows Brautigan in the top left, rear.

VIEW a larger image of Brautigan's Grade 6 school photograph.

During the school year, Brautigan served as member of Junior Safety Patrol. His Junior Safety Patrol Citation listed his name as "Richard Porterfield."

VIEW a larger image of Brautigan's Safety Patrol Citation. Attended Grade 7 at the Junior High Week Day Church School in Eugene, Oregon. Brautigan's certificate of attendance was signed by his teacher, Mrs. Paden, who filled in his name as "Richard Porterfield."

VIEW a larger image of Brautigan's certificate of attendance. Attended Grade 8 ***?*** Attended Grade 9 at Woodrow Wilson Junior High School in Eugene, Oregon, 12th and Madison. His courses there included Speech and Language, General Mathematics, Science, Physical Education, Health, and Fine Arts.

The years following World War II were full of poverty and disjunction for Brautigan and his family. His mother and stepfather, Porterfiled, seperated several times; they were divorced on 12 July 1950. According to Robert Creeley, Brautigan was given to Porterfield. Barbara and Sandra Jean stayed with Mary Lou (Robert Creeley 4).

As for the poverty, Brautigan sprinkled numerous accounts throughout his work. For example, in So the Wind Won't Blow It All Away he writes of living with his mother and two sisters in an auto court cabin outside of town. The Brautigan family, too poor to afford their own housing, was placed in the auto court by the Welfare Department (9). In the same novel, Brautigan recounts the poverty of his childhood and how this made him a social outcast at school (93), of being left alone with his sisters while both his mother and stepfather were away, and of staring at the door, waiting for someone to return.

To earn money, Brautigan and his sister collected empty bottles along the roadsides near their home. The poem "The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth's Beer Bottles" (first published in 1957) recounts this effort.