Helen Morris

Helen Morris (nee Anderson) passed away peacefully in her apartment at Sunrise at McLean Village, Virginia. Helen's family now celebrates her life with wonderful memories of gatherings, holidays, travel, and more. Her work ethic and self-reliance took her a long way, and her husband, children, and grandchildren are so lucky to have had such a dedicated wife, mother, and grandmother.
Helen was born in 1932 and raised on a large wheat farm in North Dakota, just a few miles from the Canadian border. The farm was about a mile and a half southwest the town of Antler. Back then Antler had about 300 to 350 people living there, with stores, a hotel, a restaurant, barber, schools, post office, etc. (2020 census was population 20, so the town is basically gone now).
This farm was a very hard-working place, with chores to do from first hours of the morning until bedtime. Helen learned all the tasks inside and outside the house, including how to drive the trucks and farm machinery. The task Helen hated the most, and mostly got out of, was milking the cows. The Anderson farm was considered "self-sufficient" from the food standpoint, in that the only food items they regularly purchased from in town was sugar and coffee. They chopped wood but purchased locally mined lignite coal for most of their fuel. The primary cash crop was wheat but occasionally they grew and sold flax. When Helen was little, most of the clothes she wore were made at home (some even from flour sacks). They did sell some chickens in the spring, and sold cream from the milk cows most of the year. But for the most part the livestock (beef, pork, and chicken) was slaughtered and consumed on the premises. In the summer a large garden produced fruits and vegetables, and these were frantically harvested and "canned," considered critical to survival for the family. The Anderson farm was one of the very few in the area that did not require financial relief from the government during the Great Depression.
The farmhouse was a basic square white 2-story wooden building. The ground floor had a large kitchen, a living room, and a sort of office/parlor room. Upstairs there was a loft with a guest bed, and four bedrooms. There were no bathrooms in this house. During the day people used a pit toilet privy outdoors. At night they used chamber pots. The first task in the morning was to boil water and clean those chamber pots. In North Dakota during bitterly cold and snowy winters the need to go outdoors to work or use the privy was difficult. The home had electric lights, and eventually the ice box was swapped for an electric refrigerator. The only water coming into the house was at the kitchen sink. One faucet for well water and a pump to get rain water from the cistern. The cistern water was considered better for cleaning and laundry. Helen's mother (Adine Anderson) and aunts did the cooking and baking on a coal/wood fired stove. Helen said her bath typically consisted of sponging off while standing in a laundry tub of warm water. In the summer the family rigged up an outdoor shower.
Helen did not complain about the hardship of her childhood, except the long walk to school in Antler. When there was snow on the ground, or the ground was muddy she resented that her parents would not let her take a horse to school. The only source of heat in the home was the wood stove in the kitchen, and another wood stove in the living room. The bedrooms were freezing cold in the winter. At least there were no pipes to freeze. During the summer the house was a busy place, with Helen's brother (Harold Anderson), dad (Cecil Anderson), uncles and hired help working in the fields and needing to be fed, housed, and clothed.
Helen was keen to get a good education and improve her chances in life. At the Antler school she befriended other girls with a similar dedication and kept in touch with them all her life. She would have been considered a "grind" in that she worked and studied hard to get the best grades. She said she was a pretty good basketball player, not the best on the girls' high school team but probably number two. They traveled to other schools in the area for games, and Helen was considered very competitive. Helen's high school graduating class of 1950 was just her and three other girls. She appealed to her father to go to college, and the agreement was she could go as long as she came home during the summer to help on the farm.
Helen attended Minot State Teacher's college (now called Minot State University), working on the Anderson farm in the summers. During her initial associate classroom teaching assignment in Westby, Montana, she recognized that many students needed speech therapy, and she wanted very much to learn the skills to help them. Upon returning to Minot State, she transitioned from classroom education to a speech and language clinician certification. Upon graduation she completed a one-year speech and language assignment at Lisbon, North Dakota, and one year at Enderlin, North Dakota, continuing to improve her education and skills. To pursue her Master's degree (circa 1956) Helen went to Purdue University in Indiana, and eventually met and married her husband (Arthur Morris).
Helen and Art graduated from Purdue with their Master's degrees and took jobs in Boulder City, NV. That's where their son (Arlen Morris) was born in 1960. In 1961 they decided to go to State College PA where Art worked on his PhD and Helen was a full-time mom. The Morris family lived in a trailer park, where there were quite a few kids and stay-at-home moms. This neighborhood was friendly, and many residents were also graduate students at Penn State University and got along well. The mothers often socialized and did favors for one another and helped to watch each other's children. Helen's daughter (Adele Morris) was born in State College in 1963. Helen said she had a very hard time with post-partum depression after Adele was born. It was probably called baby blues back then, and was poorly understood. Helen said her neighbor friends were a great support, and she much appreciated them during her time in Pennsylvania. In 1964, Art completed his PhD and accepted a professor position at University of Missouri Rolla, and the family relocated again, Adele still a baby.
Helen's children look back at their time in Rolla, when Helen became their "SuperMom." She became a speech therapist in the Public Schools, and a passionate advocate for therapy services in the area. She helped other nearby school systems start and expand speech therapy programs, mentored younger teachers, set up trips for training and conferences, fought for budgets, and helped students get the services they needed. Helen Morris helped hundreds of kids with stuttering, vocal cord problems, cleft palate and other birth defects, hearing loss, brain injuries, and oral injuries. She was truly a dedicated and energetic teacher, making a great difference in her community.
Arlen and Adele remember their mom's support when they had problems. Somehow Helen was always there for her husband and children. And she got a good dinner on the table every night. It was important to her that her family all sit down to dinner together. She was a good cook, fast, efficient, and practical. She did a tremendous amount of baking, often with Adele's help. She served homemade bread, rolls, coffee cake. The family had dessert every night, usually something she would bake. Helen did an amazing amount of entertaining, again with Adele usually at her side. Adele frequently thinks of her mom when planning a menu or party, and she cherishes the family recipes. Helen had people come to the house all the time. And she was always cooking or baking something to bring somewhere else. Sometimes the affiliation was through Art's work, sometimes Helen's work, church or charity things, square dance club functions, neighbors. And sometimes people would just show up unannounced to drop in visit, and Helen always handled that gracefully.
For many years every Friday night, Art and Helen hosted the Duck and Dive square dance club lessons in the basement of their home. Arlen and Adele would play in this basement, but on Friday all the toys had to be put away and the place prepared for a crowd. They were avid dancers and contributors to the club, and it was a focal point of their lively social life.
Helen and Art were both passionate about their children's school activities, especially band, so they were very active "band boosters" throughout the high school years. We can't recall Helen ever missing a Rolla High School concert band, marching band, or jazz band performance. She was also always at Adele's events, such as school plays. It appears Helen had a deeply ingrained instinct toward hospitality, and it carried through her whole life. Even just recently while living in the memory care unit at Sunrise, Helen would always try to offer visitors a snack, coffee, a cup of tea, a sandwich, a piece of cake, whatever she could.
Helen's work ethic was relentless in her homemaking. She eventually got a housekeeper to come in and help once a week, but you did not see her sit down much in those Rolla days. She really served her family doing the laundry (delegating frequently to Adele) and keeping us on track. And drying stuff on a clothesline. She did so much ironing. Ironing handkerchiefs, bedsheets, underwear, you name it. She kept the place tidy, organized and on a thrifty budget. A safe and loving family home was so important to her.
In the Rolla house, there was one telephone, on a desk in the kitchen. That desk was command central for Helen Morris. It seemed like she was on the phone a lot taking care of things. She had calendars and notepads laid out and action lists, and if Adele got restless, she'd write up math problems for her to do. She was a good letter writer, and meticulous about remembering birthdays, anniversaries, and such. It was important to her to recognize certain holidays as well. She always put out decorations for Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, 4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Celebrating the holidays and seasons was something she passionately did for her family to recognize the time of year and our time together.
While living in Rolla, Art would usually get a summer job. The family would travel to different places each summer (Aiken SC, Richland WA, Los Alamos NM, Oak Ridge TN, et al). Guess who organized these trips? Helen Morris, using a telephone and the US mail, would plan for trips arranging lodging, activities and sightseeing along the way. Helen also took Arlen and Adele on trips to visit her family in North Dakota.
After Arlen and Adele moved out of the house, Helen eventually slowed down a little bit. She retired from the public schools and got a part time job helping students at the university. Helen and Art were able to take some nice trips on their own. In 1997 after Art retired, they moved out to San Diego. Art and Helen immediately made friends in San Diego, continued a great social life, went to, and got active in square dancing in Rancho Bernardo and Poway California. Helen loved outings to afternoon teas, and they enjoyed traveling, especially visiting their children and grandchildren. Art and Helen had a rich and rewarding retirement in California.
In 2019, Art and Helen moved to Northern Virginia to be close to daughter Adele, needing more assistance in their daily living. As time went on, Helen's hearing loss, vision loss, memory loss, and mobility and other medical challenges made it increasingly difficult for her to maintain a social network and be herself. Her family and friends were saddened to see these issues leading to her isolation. But there still were many moments of good cheer with her family, and Helen was quite pragmatic about the decline in her quality of life.
Helen's family feel grief at her passing, but it is mixed with relief that she no longer suffers. We were so blessed to have this dynamic and terrific woman in our lives. Her powerful dedication and love to her family still astonishes.
Helen Morris is survived by her husband Arthur Morris, son Arlen, daughter-in-law Mary Morris, grandson Avery Morris, daughter Adele Morris, son-in-law Ted Jones, granddaughter Sophie Jones, and grandson Alexander Jones.