James Walter Morris Jr.

James Walter Morris Jr. was born on June 5, 1921, in Huntsville, Texas, the youngest child of James Walter Morris and Ethel Arrine Thompson. He was barely three years old when his father died of esophageal cancer on March 12, 1925. His mother Ethel raised him and his three older siblings alone, supported by her twin sister Edna, who lived in a nearly identical house next door.¹

Navy Service

Morris entered the United States Navy in the early 1940s. His sister Margaret married Richard Craig around the time of his return from service — the Craig marriage license from June 1947 suggests that Margaret’s wartime courtship and James Walter Jr.’s homecoming coincided. A Navy service photograph from around 1941 survives.

Family

He married Jeanne McLean. They had three sons:¹

• James Walter Morris III (born 1948)
• John Richard Morris (born 1953)
• Joseph William Morris (born 1961)

The name James Walter Morris thus passed to a third generation — from the barber of Huntsville to his youngest son, and from him to his own eldest.