Thomas Wiley Bramlett

May 19, 1958 - October 30, 2024

On October 30th 2024, Tom Bramlett, the man with the plan, pulled off his last grand plan and passed away in his home. This left his wife Sarah very pissed off at him, as he had promised her “ten good years” and he managed that within a few weeks of his estimate. However if you knew him, you would not be surprised at his ability to make a calculation like that and would join his wife in swearing at him.

Tom was born on Yokota Air Force Base in Japan on May 19, 1958 to James Edward Bramlett and Frances Ryan Bramlett. Being an Air Force family took the Bramletts to many places, and thus some of Tom’s earliest memories are of living on Ramey AFB in Puerto Rico. It was thus a shock to him when they finally made it back stateside and arrived in Maine or Massachusetts (his wife does not remember which came first) where he discovered winter for the first time. It was in New England where Tom formed a core memory of not having a real bed when they arrived at base housing, so his father brought home a stack of thin military cot mattresses. To Tom’s`dying day, that was his favorite bed. The closest he could get to that was a good couch and he would often prefer to stretch out for a couch nap than to go to bed. Tom frequently tried to convince his wife that there was plenty of room for both of them to sleep there all night. Tom would have been thrilled to know that at the end he would pass away while stretched out on one of his well loved couches.

Various base housings later, the Bramletts ended up in Gulfport Mississippi. At this point Tom was still in elementary school, but old enough to become a pest to his older sister “Hogan”, who needed no excuse to give him hell. It was around this time in life that his father started telling him words of wisdom such as “my foot up your ass is going to make you real uncomfortable” or “boy, we’re gonna have to go to the flight surgeon to get my foot out of your ass.” Summers were spent at the Bramlett family farm in Helena Arkansas where all of the children were turned loose to hopefully not cause too much trouble. Unfortunately for Tom, his middle name was Wiley and it suited him well. On one such occasion he and his cousin Bubba attempted to evade their grandfather after some round of “adventures” that involved a horse and maybe a garden. Tom’s attempts at evasion were unsuccessful, when his grandfather managed to lasso him around the middle and hang him from a tree for the trouble he caused. His grandfather proceeded to go inside to find Tom’s father and tell him that “he might want to cut his son down from the tree”.

As Tom got older he developed an interest in theater, specifically building scenery and being a carpenter. He worked in a scene shop in Gulfport owned by Buddy and Rita Sheffield, an experience that probably cemented his desire to become a carpenter. He graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi with a fine arts degree where he learned stagecraft. This led to many jobs with various theater companies where he started to thrive. At some point, Tom met his first wife Burt and they settled into NYC working with The Acting Company. After a while, Tom decided that working for someone else was decidedly not for him and opened his own scenic shop. This allowed for the many Akitas he and Burt had to live life to the fullest as shop dogs, leaving paw prints on scenery that would eventually become the logo for Thomas Bramlett and Associates. One of his favorite projects to talk about was building the acoustic panels for the redesign of Avery Fisher Hall, which he accomplished using one of the first CNC machines in the area. The CNC machine was sold to him by two young men who showed up with a suitcase looking to sell the computer software they had designed, and Tom recognized the opportunity when he saw it.

Tom became the man who could pull an idea out of his ass, which somehow got him involved with designing and building magic tricks for Penn & Teller. In the magic world, he went by Wiley and was the Director of Covert Operations. He was particularly proud of his involvement with The Bullet Catch, the secrets of which he was told could only be revealed if he got a blow job out of it. Don’t worry Penn, he did. During the magic phase of his many careers, Tom and Burt moved to Vegas where he learned to fly planes, helicopters, and gyro planes. Around the start of his next career as a Staging Supervisor, he and Burt parted ways after sharing a life and five dogs together.

Tom moved to Los Angeles, and while his job title there was Staging Supervisor his real job was being a mentor. One of the many lines from the Bramlett words of wisdom was “I don’t make mistakes, I make opportunities” fit this perfectly. He would happily take what he referred to as “pity fuck” jobs if it meant he could employ his crew or give one of his assistants a chance for more responsibility. Tom never wanted anything in return, only for those he helped to rise up, be prosperous, and pay it forward. This being a long term payoff in the way of thanks, someone got the bright idea to start putting a bottle of 10 year old Laphroiag on his table at the end of every show as a thank you. In the golden days when it was still acceptable, he would wait until the day ended and send someone to scrounge up cups and ice to share a small drink with a handful of work friends. Laphroaig being an acquired taste, Tom would enjoy the look on peoples faces as they tried it for the first time.

It was on one of the many jobs that Tom took to help someone out that he found himself in Greensboro North Carolina where he met his future wife Sarah. Everyone went to the hotel bar for dinner and drinks after the first day and they sat next to each other. They finished the job knowing they had met someone important, and Tom had planted the idea in her head to move to Los Angeles. They spent the next two years working on shows together and developing a strong foundational friendship before coming to the conclusion that dancing around their feelings just wasn’t worth it. Tom and Sarah did not advertise their relationship, but many people just knew by the way they worked as a team together. It was around this time that he decided to make yet another career change and became a safety consultant in television, passing off many of his staging supervisor jobs to several of his protégés. Sarah helped him run his safety consulting company and would frequently be found working alongside him as a consultant on jobs. She had intentionally not taken jobs in her original career as a scenic painter upon moving to Los Angeles so that she could have more opportunities picking up jobs working with Tom.

Tom taught her carpentry, with one of their first projects being an oak easel for her when she first moved to LA. They picked up several ten foot long boards of oak, loaded them into his convertible and proceeded to drive down the 405 to one of the studios his friend Dano was working in to borrow tools and shop space. Tom didn’t need a drawing or a cut list, he had designed the easel in his head several times over. When it was completed, the resulting drive from manhattan beach to her Koreatown apartment with a gigantic easel in the back of the convertible was a particularly comical sight. While Tom enjoyed sharing his hobbies and extensive knowledge with Sarah, he was reluctant to share stories of his past jobs and accomplishments because he didn't want to come across as bragging. Her response was “Sweetie I married you, it's safe to say I’m your biggest fan and want to know more”. This would result in Tom sharing a previously unknown story over a late night cocktail that would leave her thinking only Tom Bramlett could have a story like this. One such story was about his time working with Penn & Teller in London and ending up in the bathroom next to Prince Charles. Sarah had the foresight to record the story, so Tom’s exact words were “here I am shaking my dick, and it's like well Charlie, how ya doing”. Sarah would attempt to record stories such as this, but it was far easier to keep a list of one liners from Tom that she called Bramlett Words of Wisdom. Granted, a more appropriate title would be Bramlett Words of Inappropriate Wisdom, as most of it is not safe for small children or those easily offended. Some of the least inappropriate ones are:

“I have not made that up, other people have made that up”

“I hope that shot is a single malt”

“When a terrorist dies, an angel gets its wings”

“Strong like bull, smart like tractor”

Sarah frequently threatened to have them printed on a deck of cards to draw from whenever a witty or inappropriate response was needed, sort of like a Cards Against Humanity expansion pack.

Tom and Sarah got tired of being in Los Angeles all the time, so he went on a weekend trip to pick out a house in Arkansas while she stayed back to pick up the new puppy they had picked out. She was completely on board with this until the closing day got pushed back and was left to move a house and dog from his parents home in Mississippi to Arkansas alone while Tom absconded to Hawaii for three weeks for a job. That was also when Sarah discovered he moved them to a dry county with no trash pick up. Tom got a three car garage out of the move which he promptly turned into his carpentry shop. He was able to upgrade his table saw under the excuse that he wanted Sarah to be able to use something safer than his old beat up one. Sarah was not fooled by this excuse when he purchased the cabinetry grade table saw. She happily encouraged his carpentry by getting him all of his favorite tans tools for various birthdays, Christmases, and anniversaries. The crowning jewel was the Lie Nielsen woodworking bench she bought for his birthday one year after harassing the company about when they would be available for purchase again. With Tom’s birthday being in May and Arkansas being hotter than Satan’s armpit in the summer, they put the work bench in the living room and Tom was very happy to work on various furniture projects from the comfort of God’s greatest gift to the south, AC.

Tom built her a library, painting panels, a second easel, picture frames, a coffee table, and then taught her how to use the hand tools to build a humidor. Their house is filled with the things he built and the ideas he had for projects never started. Plans for furniture and sailboats are stacked in abundance and they left Sarah with a love of wood working along with the tools to build all the projects he never could.

Tom was preceded in death by his father James, his mother Frances, his half brother Jim, his sister “Hogan”, and his five Akitas with Burt: Beau, Bear, Bo’s’n, Scarlet, and Samantha. He is survived by his wife Sarah Bramlett, their two Akitas: Bouie and Scout, his honorary daughter Taylor Cherry (Mike Cherry), her three children Henry, Jack, and Frances, and various cousins in Arkansas.

Because Tom was the man with the plan, all of his wishes were clearly laid out to Sarah with the explicit instructions not to have a funeral, pour a drink for him (single malt or vodka), and then to scatter his ashes in the Mississippi. Stories of Tom are very welcome and Sarah hopes that you will remember him for the brilliant and generous man that he was. Tom has taken part of her soul with him, and the world is a little bit darker without him.