diff --git a/src/backend/commands/tablecmds.c b/src/backend/commands/tablecmds.c
index 05593f3316..679c2ce6a7 100644
--- a/src/backend/commands/tablecmds.c
+++ b/src/backend/commands/tablecmds.c
@@ -7080,6 +7080,15 @@ ATExecDropColumn(List **wqueue, Relation rel, const char *colName,
 	ReleaseSysCache(tuple);
 
 	/*
+	 * Perform the actual column deletion
+	 */
+	object.classId = RelationRelationId;
+	object.objectId = RelationGetRelid(rel);
+	object.objectSubId = attnum;
+
+	performDeletion(&object, behavior, 0);
+
+	/*
 	 * Propagate to children as appropriate.  Unlike most other ALTER
 	 * routines, we have to do this one level of recursion at a time; we can't
 	 * use find_all_inheritors to do it in one pass.
@@ -7170,15 +7179,6 @@ ATExecDropColumn(List **wqueue, Relation rel, const char *colName,
 		table_close(attr_rel, RowExclusiveLock);
 	}
 
-	/*
-	 * Perform the actual column deletion
-	 */
-	object.classId = RelationRelationId;
-	object.objectId = RelationGetRelid(rel);
-	object.objectSubId = attnum;
-
-	performDeletion(&object, behavior, 0);
-
 	return object;
 }