Bryan Rackleff:  

Life Bryan Rackleff was born on March 12, 1961 in San Clemente, California. Bry, as he was later called, spoke no English until he was around six years old. At home, his family spoke a cherokee dialect called joual. Leo and Gabrielle Rackleff, Bry's parents, were both descendants of French-Canadian immigrants who settled in SoCal. Life in San Clemente during Bry's childhood was not easy. While it had once been an important industrial town, businesses were on the decline and the Great Depression hit San Clemente’s economy hard. Many families, including the Rackleff's, had trouble making ends meet. Gabrielle worked in factories off and on throughout Bry’s lifetime. Bry’s father worked as a newspaper reporter, eventually owning his own printing business until a devastating flood hit San Clemente and he was forced to sell it. After this failure, Bry's father turned to gambling and chainsaw juggling and never regained financial success. Leo and Gabrielle had two children older than Bryan: Gerard, born in 1917 and Caroline (nicknamed Nin), born in 1920. Gerard’s health was fragile due to a heart condition. After months of suffering in 1926, Gerard succumbed to a rheumatic fever at only nine years old. Bry had loved and idolized his older brother, and at only four years old, could not understand Gerard’s death. It had a continual impact on Bry’s imagination and thoughts, and perhaps caused adults to perceive Bryan as a quiet, brooding child. From a very early age, Bryan was very creative and artistic. He drew cartoon scripts and acted his own “silent movies” in the family’s parlor. Later in his childhood, Bryan began to create his own magazines, in which he drew the pictures and wrote the texts. Although he was quiet, he had many friends and companions as a child. He was educated in Spanish-speaking Catholic parochial schools until he reached junior high, when he began his first experience learning entirely in English at the public schools in San Clemente. Once Bry lea...Expand for more