Tribute to Ruth Morris

Photo by Doug Smith, Sr.

I want to pause and pay tribute to my mom, a phenomenal woman who lived with tragedy and sickness but overcame her circumstances to become the gleaming matriarch of my family.

Ruth Daniels Morris, my mother, was born on Easter Sunday, April 8th, and died 21 years ago today. (I can't believe she has been gone that long!)  Her nickname was Bunny, and her face was covered with freckles. She earned a BS degree in Commercial Education cum laude in 1950 from Bluefield State College in West Virginia. She was the seventh of eight children, and her parents were the late James Luther and Minnie Daniels.

After growing up during the Depression, all of her siblings, except for the oldest, graduated from college.

With friends - 1950

After college, my mom wanted to become a physical therapist and studied at Freedman's Hospital in Washington, D.C., but after fainting in the emergency room when she saw a bloody patient, she decided to change her profession.

She was hired by A&M College (University) without an interview on the recommendation of her college professor. She traveled to Normal, Al. on the train to become a secretary to the Dean of Students and met my father, Thomas V. Morris, a Botany professor.

Family portrait - 1953

My parents married in 1952. Ten months later, I was born. My folks were so poor that while she was pregnant, she had only two maternity outfits and wore my father's boxer shorts! She later became secretary to President Drake at A&M.

My mother ended her "career" on campus when I was four, and with my father and uncle started Albert's Flowers which is still in operation today. Even though her picture has been taken down from the "shop's" wall, I know that if not for her, one of Huntsville's most successful businesses would not have survived.

My mother was a "concerned" person who loved her AKA sorority sisters and her only daughter - me. She grieved after suffering two miscarriages and became a widow and single mom at 39 years old.  She fully financed my out of state education at Indiana University without the assistance of financial aid or help from the government. Her second marriage ended in divorce, but she and Lionel Crump, Sr. stayed friends until she died.

Ruth Morris seated (2nd from r) with AKA graduate chapter, Epsilon Gamma Omega Chapter in Normal, Ala. One AKA founder, Harriet Terry, is in center of photo.

During my mother's last years, she loved watching weather reports and could possibly have been a wonderful meteorologist.  She did not drive in the rain after her car hydroplaned once and she lost control on the highway. It's a wonder that she died on the same day 14 years before Hurricane Katrina made landfall.

Her passing took place in Huntsville Hospital. With her neck in a brace and her eyes wide open, a single tear streamed down here cheek as she departed this world and floated away. Smoke could be seen outside her hospital room window.

With grandchildren - Ayron, Ilea, and Daniel - in 1990. Photo by Kurk Johnson

I only wish I could be the woman she was.

Giving thanks to God for such a wonderful mother who was smart, frugal, beautiful, and courageous, may God rest her soul.

©2012 Tomi Johnson. All rights reserved .