Kenneth Poe Funeral Services

November 3, 2025

Dan Brattain, who died on November 3, 2025, at the age of 88, learned to adjust to life’s twists and turns from an early age.

He grew up in the small town of Oakboro, NC — 33 miles east of Charlotte — where his father ran moonshine to supplement what he scratched out on the family farm. Dan was 15 the night he got behind the wheel of his father’s 1937 Ford to make a delivery somewhere in the Stanly County darkness. When lights began flashing in the rearview mirror, Dan leaped across his father and out of the car so the police wouldn’t catch him driving at such a young age.

Dan married the former Jane Little of Oakboro in 1957. Their first date was at the roller rink — about the only place to go back in the day. They shared 43 years together, raising two strong, accomplished daughters, before a brain aneurysm unexpectedly took her in 2000 at age 59. She was a gifted pianist and quoted Shakespeare. He grieved. They all did. But he came to understand that he had to go on — for his family.

In later years, he enjoyed living on Lake Wylie and, before that, on High Rock Lake in Lexington, NC, puttering on his boat with Mr. Bear, his Labrador Retriever, by his side. He’d put on music. He loved jazz. Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World was a favorite.

When age and illness forced him to move to a retirement community — he could tell you all the ways that heart problems, diabetes, and dialysis blow — he found a way forward. At Windsor Run in Matthews, he reconnected with an old classmate and his wife from Oakboro High School who had also moved there. Together they shared dinners and memories.

That was Daniel Webster Brattain Jr. Until his death, following a period of declining health, he made the best of every turn.

Dan’s gift for rising above came naturally. He was the youngest of six children — and the only boy — born to Dan and Ida Brattain on September 29, 1937. Growing up on the family’s 50-acre farm, home to beef cattle and a still beside a creek, meant that he couldn’t always connect with his friends in town. He wasn’t proud of corn liquor being part of the family story, but he came to accept that there was nothing he could do about either fact of life.

Then there were the memories that stayed with him: Luigi the pig — the runt of the litter — whom Dan bottle-fed at age 10. Luigi thought he was a dog after that. Fast forward a few years, and Dan never forgot the 1953 Buick Century his father brought home. That was a car for a 16-year-old to take on a date. In high school, Dan played the trumpet and once landed in hot water at a 4-H camp for playing “Reveille” at night instead of “Taps.”

Dan graduated in 1955 from Oakboro High School, where he was named “Most Popular.” The first in his family to attend college, he graduated from NC State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. Dan, Jane, and their infant daughter, Kim, set off for Dayton, Ohio, with $200 he borrowed from his dad so he could go to work for Chrysler Corp. They eventually — and happily — returned to Charlotte, where the family settled in the Cotswold neighborhood. Dan worked for Piedmont Natural Gas and later Whirlpool, promoting and selling gas-powered appliances. He took early retirement in 1996. He was proud of his career, but like so many who look back, he wished that all those business trips hadn’t taken him away from home.

Dan was always smiling. He had a big heart. He pulled no punches and told you what he thought. The placard by his front door in the retirement community warned visitors (wink, wink): ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK.

A mechanical engineer by training, he could fix anything. Traveling the world for work taught him to appreciate other cultures, and he had stories to tell. His father served some time for making hooch during Prohibition. When his Aunt Josie took the liquor to market — hidden under a blanket — five-year-old Dan rode along as her decoy. An uncle, Dr. Walter Brattain, won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1956 for co-inventing the transistor.

Dan Brattain was a North Star to his loved ones. They knew they could come to him and ask, “What should I do?” and he’d respond with kindness and counsel. He was so proud of his daughters. Kim, a former TV journalist, is now an accomplished filmmaker in Charlotte with her own media company. Dr. Michelle Brattain is the Assistant Provost for Academic Affairs at Georgia State University in Atlanta — and once skated in roller derby. To Dan, they were his legacy.

Theirs was the spirit he loved and lived.

Dan is survived by his daughters, Kim Brattain and her husband, Allison Clark, of Denver, NC, and Dr. Michelle Brattain of Atlanta; his grandchildren, Dan Paustian of Los Angeles, Andrew Paustian and his wife, Sarah Paustian, of Charlotte, Sarah Kathryn Clark and her husband, Dominick Mortarotti, of Denver, NC, and Tui Brattain of Atlanta; and one surviving sister, Bobbie Kay Thompson of Red Cross, NC. He is also survived by numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Jane Little Brattain.

A service to celebrate his life will be held at 2:00 p.m., Saturday, November 8, at Myers Park Presbyterian Church, 2501 Oxford Place, Charlotte.

Memorials may be made to The Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation, 102 Main Street, Suite 100, McAdenville, NC 28101.

The family is deeply grateful for the care and kindness shown by the caregivers at Windsor Run, Piedmont Overlook.

Arrangements are in the care of Kenneth W. Poe Funeral & Cremation Service, 1321 Berkeley Ave., Charlotte, NC 28204; (704) 641-7606. Online condolences may be shared at www.kennethpoeservices.com.