Julie Bryant

“I’m not happy.”

Born 20 Sept 1966. Parents… dead? Lived in Kansas City. Adopted. Older brother, sister.

Majored in Dance at University of Missouri- Kansas City.

Fast forward. Dancing in Busch Gardens Williamsburg in 1989. At the time, she lived in Newport News. Lived in Austin during the winter, and Virginia during the spring and summer for the dancing.

Abortion in May. Hard choice. Doesn’t have regrets, precisely, but it’s a shitty choice, and in the 90s, there wasn’t as much of a support network, as much acceptance for having to make it as we’re theoretically supposed to have.

In July, JR proposes. She gets married in Kansas City in 1992, and moves to Austin. She falls out of dancing during this time. Meets Chris and Robyn Murphy, back when they all worked together.

Approximately 5 years later, she has an affair with a coworker. She tells JR. It does not go well.

“In 1997, it all went bad.”

On November 27, 1997, after coming home from a KC- Denver football game at a bar, she OD’s on prescription medicine in her first suicide attempt. She calls her best friend, Adana Gandara, who calls 911. Called her mom, in case she was successful. Emergency services show up, save her. Calls JR, who, fed up, shows up only eventually.

They divorce shortly afterwards. It’s finalized in 1998.

Meets John in 1998 in a bar, while he was 24. Younger man. They have a thing, but John moves to LA to do work in film, and it falls apart. Distance is hard for everyone.

Moves to Aspen, CO, in August, 2000. Dates an alcoholic Englishman, who cheats on her. They break up. She moves in with her friend, Ann Weatherford, an Austin native.

In November, while driving home drunk, she loses control of her car.

“It was not the place for me.”

Moves back to Austin in 2001.

Reconnects with John in 2004- off and on.

In 2009, best friend Adana Gandara is diagnosed with brain cancer. It’s the second iteration; it had previously been diagnosed, and been beaten into remission. It comes back in late 2009; on Oct. 7, Gandara dies.

A few weeks later, her adopted father went in to get a stent- relatively routine procedure. Something went wrong, and he abruptly dies.

In 2010, she and John marry. Shortly afterwards, she’s laid off. In 2012, they have a knock-down drag out fight about financial responsibility. John wasn’t working, and she was carrying most of the weight of paying the bills, and with her losing her job, things became unexpectedly bleak.

“Sometimes I just look at those mack trucks on the other side of the road, and I think about driving into one. The driver would be fine, it’s a big truck, but it’d be so easy.”

“I feel like I’m alone a lot.”

“I don’t have it together.”

Doesn’t feel like she’s got life figured out. Keeps making it bad for herself.

To Do

Wrap it up
Video interviews
-Pam Donaldson
-Robyn Murphy
-Third friend who’s name is in the interview

Section Audio (upload to Clyp for sourcing on the page)
Scrub through for quotes