Azie Taylor Morton

News Obituary Listing

Azie Taylor Morton, who grew up poor on a Caldwell County farm and became the only African American to serve as U.S. treasurer, died Sunday after suffering a massive stroke. She was 67.

Morton was an activist in Austin's civil rights movement in the 1960s, participating in a sit-in at a pharmacy and five-and-dime store on Congress Avenue. She was also among the first African Americans to purchase a ticket to Barton Springs.

Morton was raised by her maternal grandparents and attended high school at the Texas Blind, Deaf and Orphan School, a charity-sponsored school for black children in Austin, because there was no high school for African Americans in her hometown of Dale. She graduated at age 16. She was turned down for admission to the University of Texas but was accepted at Huston-Tillotson College in East Austin, where she graduated cum laude in 1956.

Two years later, she was an administrative assistant at the Texas AFL-CIO office, launching a career in Democratic Party politics that eventually led President Carter to appoint her U.S. treasurer in 1977. Her signature graced U.S. currency for more than three years.

"She was a no-nonsense kind of woman but at the same time a caring woman," said state Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin. "She taught you that you could be a woman and an African American and succeed regardless of the obstacles before you."

At the time of her death, Morton was owner and manager of Ram Bookstore, an independent bookseller catering to Huston-Tillotson students. She was also president of Exeter Capital Asset Management Co. and a member of Schlotzsky's board of directors. She also previously served on the boards of Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers, St. Edward's University, the National Democratic Institute and Austin Children's Museum, among other groups.

Morton was a close friend of Barbara Jordan, a former Texas congresswoman; she fixed Jordan's makeup for her funeral and visitation in 1996.

Morton moved back to Austin from Washington with her husband, James Homer Morton, in the 1990s, and immediately became involved in Huston-Tillotson, helping to raise money and purchasing the college's struggling bookstore. The couple lived in South Austin and about two years ago purchased a home in rural Bastrop County. Her husband died in January.

She was "a bridge between the broader community and the community in East Austin," said friend and former state Rep. Wilhelmina Delco.

"She could work across racial lines, religious, ethnic, you name it," said Lavon Marshall, who graduated in the class after Morton at Huston-Tillotson.

Morton was a member of President Kennedy's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity; part of the U.S. delegation to Rome for the ascendancy of Pope John Paul II; an election observer in Haiti, Senegal and the Dominican Republic; and part of a delegation to the Soviet Union and China. Morton attended every Democratic National Convention but one since 1964.

She enjoyed being a role model.

"She loved being with young people. She tried to share with them her hardships growing up and tried

bgee@statesman.com; 445-3643