diff --git a/swift/proxy/controllers/obj.py b/swift/proxy/controllers/obj.py
index 027f364d57..62655ef6b5 100644
--- a/swift/proxy/controllers/obj.py
+++ b/swift/proxy/controllers/obj.py
@@ -279,9 +279,6 @@ class ObjectController(Controller):
         headers = [self.generate_request_headers(req, additional=req.headers)
                    for _junk in range(n_outgoing)]
 
-        for header in headers:
-            header['Connection'] = 'close'
-
         for i, container in enumerate(containers):
             i = i % len(headers)
 
diff --git a/test/unit/proxy/controllers/test_base.py b/test/unit/proxy/controllers/test_base.py
index ccfe149b98..04039fbf2a 100644
--- a/test/unit/proxy/controllers/test_base.py
+++ b/test/unit/proxy/controllers/test_base.py
@@ -618,7 +618,8 @@ class TestFuncs(unittest.TestCase):
         req = Request.blank('/v1/a/c/o', headers=src_headers)
         dst_headers = base.generate_request_headers(req, transfer=True)
         expected_headers = {'x-base-meta-owner': '',
-                            'x-base-meta-size': '151M'}
+                            'x-base-meta-size': '151M',
+                            'connection': 'close'}
         for k, v in expected_headers.iteritems():
             self.assertTrue(k in dst_headers)
             self.assertEqual(v, dst_headers[k])