William Eugene Morgan

William Eugene "Gene" Morgan

Dad left us on Sunday morning, January 15, at the age of 99. He passed away in his sleep in Fresno, at the Terraces at San Joaquin Gardens, his caregiver Connie, by his side. His heroic battle with joint pain and dementia, is finally over. Now he can rest peacefully with Mom, and visit his close buddy, Larry Figgen, who was killed in action in the Pacific during World War 2.

Gene was born in Long Beach, CA to Ferol Combs Morgan on January 12, 1924. He never knew his father Eugene Austin Morgan, who was drowned off the coast of Long Beach in a boating accident when Gene was 9 months old. Gene and Ferol (though beloved, we never did call her "Grandma"), moved many times, but principally lived in the Palm Springs Trailer Park on Ramon Road in Palm Springs. Ferol moved them there as a result of Gene's close association with adult bookies when they lived in a trailer near Santa Anita racetrack.

Moving or not, his mother couldn't stop his love of placing bets, and he spent his high school years serving as a bookie to his classmates. He always loved sports, and participated in tennis, football and basketball at Palm Springs High School, where he graduated in 1942. Tennis though, was what he excelled at, playing his entire life, well into his 90s.

Never the academic, Gene enlisted in the US Marines, after one semester at Glendale Junior College, as his mother joined the WACS (Women's Army Corps). After boot camp at Camp Pendleton, he became an artillery forward observer in the 12th Marines, 3rd division, participating in the invasions of Guam and Iwo Jima. In 1945 after 2 years in the South Pacific, he returned home with a purple heart, and an ambition to become a radio announcer.

With the help of the GI Bill, he enrolled in a radio-broadcasting school at Wilshire and Western in Los Angeles. While there he met Patricia Marie Knotts on a double date. They were married 3 months later, on October 4, 1946. (In 1950 they purchased their first home, in the San Fernando Valley, also with the help of the GI Bill.) Their marriage lasted for 72 years until Mom died, in March 2019.

After they were married, Gene and Patty moved to Palm Springs where he got a job at KCMJ, the desert's first radio station. He was mostly known for his "man on the street" interviews on Palm Canyon Drive in front of the Plaza Theater. Then, moving up to Modesto and Turlock, he also did radio announcing at KTUR.

Back in LA, Gene worked for a short time at KGIL, before opening his own advertising agency in 1955, The Morgan Company. He handled radio ads for McMahon's Furniture Stores and Mayfair Markets in the San Joaquin Valley. By 1965 Gene had begun investing in land, apartments and commercial properties, first in the Antelope Valley, and then in the burgeoning LA area.

In 1997 Gene and Patty moved from the San Fernando Valley in LA, back to Palm Springs, enjoying 20 years there before moving up to Fresno to be near family. Gene spent his last 5 years in Fresno near his daughter, Laura Silberman; son-in-law Ricardo Silberman, granddaughter and husband Tali and Brian Whelan, and great-grandchildren Alessandra, Luisa, Joaquin and Daniel Whelan. He will also be missed by grandson Paul Silberman of Portland, OR; son and wife Lex and Karla Morgan of Sequim, WA; granddaughters Gretchen Persinger of Port Orchard, WA; Anneka Morgan Doyle of Juneau, AK; Sasha McCarter of Port Angeles, WA, and grandson Derek Morgan of Bellingham, WA.

A small family funeral is being planned.