Bryan Brand Harper Jr., age 77, of Lauderdale, Miss., died on August 25, 2022. Robert Barham Family Funeral Home is honored to be entrusted with the arrangements.
A native of Meridian, Miss., and born while World War II raged (1943), Bryan's early years were defined by life on military installations, including two years in a grimy Quonset hut on faraway Guam in the Pacific. His father, an Army Air Corp fighter pilot from Lubbock Texas, commanded this tiny island at war's end. A military "brat," Bryan lived on or near installations in Texas, Rhode Island, Alabama, Virginia and Naples, Italy, ( NATO.) Bryan's mom, Hazel Lillian Pigford of the esteemed Pigford family in Meridian, met Colonel Bryan Brand Harper, Sr. while he trained P-51 fighter pilots at Key Field.
A 1963 graduate of Meridian High School, Bryan combined achievement with ambition in undergraduate studies at Ole Miss, graduating BMOC in 1967, then finishing Ole Miss Law School in 1970. After two despairing years in Jackson as a "storefront" lawyer, Bryan moved to that "promised land" called Colorado, and passed both the Colorado Bar, and the Real Estate Broker's exam. He made Aspen home - the first of the Notorious Harper Brothers to become Coloradans - and quickly succeeded in the exploding real estate market. In 1980 he married Shellie Roy, and they started Bryan Harper Realty as well as adding two new residents, Sabrina and Bryan Harper III, to Aspen's population. An avid skier and outdoorsman, Aspen became Bryan's Shangri- La, and Lake Powell his favorite sanctuary. Bass fishing was Bryan's passion.
In 1999, Bryan moved back to Meridian, built his dream-house at Dalewood, and with his long-time partner, Gloria Moore, they fished America's lakes and traveled the world. Bryan's art was his life, and he finished his masterpiece on his own terms.
Bryan is survived by his daughter: Sabrina Lundberg and her husband, Chris, and two grandchildren, Krister and Julie, of Hays, Kansas; his son: Bryan Harper III (Hunter) of Oxford, Mississippi; and a brother: Mike Harper (Hays) of Nashville, TN. He was preceded in death by his parents, Colonel Bryan and Hazel Harper and a younger brother, David.
Online condolences may be expressed to the family at www.robertbarhamffh.com.