Estelle Morris

Funeral Services were conducted Thursday, July 23 at the Caldwell Funeral Chapel with interment in the Safford Cemetery. Born December 26, 1910, in Killeen, Bell County, Texas, Mattie Estelle Griffin was the fourth child and third daughter born to Henry Richard Griffin and Sarah Jane Smith. Shortly after her birth, her father left Texas and traveled to Safford, Arizona in search of work. Work was found, and in 1912, shortly before Arizona became a State, they travelled by train to Bowie, Arizona, and then got in a covered horse drawn wagon and came the rest of the way to Safford. These early years in Safford were happy years for Estelle. She idolized her father and he did the best to spoil his princess. One of the things she remembered was that he gave her a locket which she kept and wore religiously until she was fully grown. A little frail, and with a heart murmur, Estelle had to be careful, but did her chores willingly, and often covered for some of her other sisters. They were a happy family. Their father always rented big houses, and their house was the center of activity in the neighborhood. My Grandmother Griffin was a wonderful mother, and encouraged her children to work hard and play hard. When they were living in a house across the street from where Chase Bank is now, Grandma would sit on a big box out in the middle of the street, and all the kids in the neighborhood would search for frogs and would bring them in and place them in the box until they couldn't find any more. Then Grandma got off the box and they turned it over and hundreds and hundreds of frogs went in every direction. Estelle said it was really neat to see so many frogs. As a student in school, Estelle was a favorite of the teachers and excelled in her studies. She especially loved math, business and literature. An avid reader, she could read a book a day. In later life, the loss of her sight was probably one of the most painful parts of growing old. She could no longer read. I can't remember exactly how she got "eyeritis", whether she just came down with it, or because she had eaten one of the Daisy fly killer strips, but her eyes swelled up 3 to 4 times their normal size, and she went completely blind. She had to stay in a totally black room for months with only wet wash cloths on her eyes while she prayed for healing. Without the modern pain killers, she had to endure tremendous pain and suffering, but bore it well. It was at this point that she developed the philosophy that she would never complain about her fate, but would accept what life had dealt her, and do her best to cope. As much as she could, she continued to do her chores while she was totally blind. In time, her eyes healed and she gratefully went back to her cherished studies. Her childhood was quite normal and she loved her sisters. They worked hard and played hard and her happiest times were with her family. She was 16 going on 17, and she met a strong young man by the name of Bill Morris. He was an older man and she was thrilled that he was paying attention to her. After several meetings, Bill asked her out on a date. Estelle was ecstatic!! ! She was going out on a date with an OLDER man. . She told all her friends, and they all came over to her house to be there to meet this handsome devil when he came to pick her up, and she waited and waited, and waited, but Bill never showed. He had stood her up. Hell hath seen no fury like a young lady stood up by her date in front of all of her friends. Estelle was livid. For weeks, Bill would try to talk to her, offer to give her a ride home, and when she refused, he would walk home with her, all the way plying his charm, and then walk back to the school to pick up his car and then go home. Thank heavens for all of us, Bill was persistent, and Estelle finally accepted a make up date, and from then love took its natural course, and in short order, Bill asked her to marry him and she said yes. They told Grandma Griffin, but they were afraid to tell Estelle's father until the day of the wedding out of fear that he would shoot that moon shining Bill Morris for taking his little girl. However true love won out, and on June 26, 1928, Stake President Harry L: Payne made Bill and Estelle, Mr. and Mrs. William A. Morris. From the moment of their marriage, it was no longer Bill, no longer Estelle, but Bill and Estelle. You never thought of them apart from the other, but always a team, in equal harness, pulling together for their mutual benefit. They were in love, and were always together and for 56 years they were an example of marital companionship that we all can admire. After the marriage, a group came to chivaree them. Bill and Estelle took out on foot and went up a wash to a neighbors house. The neighbor took them to Grandma Griffin's, who in turn took them across the street to Sheriff Tate's house, and asked Mrs. Tate if they could spend the night in her spare bedroom. It was very late in the morning when the sheriff came home quite frustrated, explaining that he had been out with the party trying to find the newlyweds. Mrs. Tate quietly informed him that the missing couple was only down the hall in the spare bedroom and the sheriff was to go to bed and mind his own business. It was an interesting first night together, which I don't think I'll elaborate on, only to say when you get to the naked truth; things aren't always as you expect them to be. Bill & Estelle's first home was a small two bedroom house on 7th street, painted a dark green. They had an old wood stove, a few second hand pieces of furniture, and made due for the rest with orange crates as tables and shelves. It was very humble, but those were happy days. Bill worked hard, and sometimes they would only have a couple of dollars a week to live on. There were times that they had only one onion or one potato, or someone would give them a squash and that was all they had to eat. Sometimes they had no food, but Estelle had her pride, and she and Bill would wash their face, and would go to visit her parents, and refuse any food saying they had already eaten because her mother had 8 other mouths to feed. July 15, 1929, Estelle delivered a 10 pound bouncing baby boy. William Duane Morris came into their life. Estelle literally went to death's door in order to give birth to Duane. It was a hard delivery, and complications set in, and the doctor felt that Estelle would not live, so they went to work to save the baby. Estelle was unconscious for over a week, and when she started to come out of it, the Doctors were amazed and went to work to bring her back. They hadn't even sewn her up after the delivery, she was so bad. Bill stayed right by her side throughout it all. The doctors advised them against any more children, cautioning them that it would kill Estelle if they did. Together Bill and Estelle raised Duane with love. It then became BILL, ESTELLE and DUANE, for they went everywhere together. They loved the movies, and whenever they could afford it, they would try to see every new movie that came to town. Even when Duane was a baby, they would ALL go to the movies. There was never any place that they would go that all of them could not go. Estelle says that she knows of only one time that Bill ever spanked Duane, and she let him know in no uncertain terms that that was not the way that they were going to raise their son. Estelle was a stay at home mom, and her yard became the playground for all the neighborhood kids. Duane was an exceptional son, and Bill taught him to work hard, and he and his father had many wonderful experiences together. Bill could always trust Duane, and could rely on him to do the work of two other men, and Duane idolized his parents, and would do everything in his power to make his mom and dad proud of him, and they were. Around 1929-30, Bill and Estelle decided to build a home of their own, so with $700.00 they borrowed from Mr. Woodard, and using some old lumber Bill got from tearing down the old Jennings house, they build their home on 11th Avenue. It had a kitchen, a bedroom and a bathroom, and a big hole where the living room would be. It took them 10 years to finally finish out their home, but it was theirs, free and clear, and they were extremely happy during all this time. July 27, 1945, Duane died suddenly of an apparent heart attack in the Safford swimming pool. Nothing could have struck Bill and Estelle any harder. Estelle remembers with bitterness that the war ended about the same time, and she, asked herself "why" Why should the war end and everyone be happy when her whole world was caving in around her shoulders. When they buried Duane, Estelle would have been grateful to have been buried with him. In finding solace, Estelle went to work for Mae Reed in her flower shop, and Bill buried himself in his work out at the gravel pit. When ever bill was upset, he would climb on a loader and push sand, whether it needed it or not, and Estelle knew better than to bother him. When he had worked out whatever was bothering him, he would climb down, take a shower, and then go on with life It wasn't long before Bill built up his business and needed help in the office, and so Estelle quit her job at the flower shop and joined Bill in the Gravel business and worked side by side with him for the rest of their careers. They both gave the business everything they had, and many times did without for the benefit of the company. In 1948 Bill's brother Rulon came back from the war and Bill invited him into the business, and then in 1957 they went into the redi-mix business and Jackie Greenwell joined them. December 15, 1982, they sold their company to Jack and Shirley Gilbert of Bisbee. The last 27 years in the business, Estelle thought that either Bill had lost his sense of direction or that he had opened a new gravel pit on the North side of town, for every morning, he would promptly leave at 7:00 a.m. telling her that he was going to the pit. However, sometimes he would go South, and sometimes he would go North. Estelle never located Bill's North pit. In 1956, Bill and Estelle began construction of their new home located at 1213 1st Avenue. Purchasing the lot from Gerald Foote, Bill brought the ground up to grade by filling it with gravel, and then took great pride in digging his footings all the way back down to bedrock. He swore that his house would never sink. Arthur Evans was the contractor, with Joe McClellan doing the finish carpentry, Hartly Burnett the plaster, and Kenneth Blain the painting. Estelle took great pride in the new home and made sure it was just right, and when it was finished, it was beautiful, and they lived in it until both their passing. Bill and Estelle loved their families, and everybody loved them. They were the type of people that so many of their nieces and nephews could turn to and find a willing ear and an open heart. At their 50th wedding anniversary, so many of the tributes would tell of how during a time of personal crisis, one after another of these children would turn to Bill and Estelle for guidance and inspiration. Their door was always open. When the fire whistle would blow, you could always find Bill and Estelle about the second or third car behind the fire truck. Estelle said they always had to check to see if it was Grandma's house, and if it wasn't, as long as they were out, they would see if it was one of their friends who might need help. When Grandma Griffin passed away, Bill and Estelle became the hub for the Griffin family, the place for everyone to gather, and the information hub of the family. If you needed to know what was happening with any one of the family, or just needed to talk, you could visit with Estelle, for she kept in touch with everybody, and they would mediate any squabble that might come up. To them, Family was the most important thing in the world. Over the years, Bill and Estelle had many pets. There was Pet, Curly, Mopsy, Rosie, Blue and Patch, and later Tash and Sheba. They loved their animals, however many the time bill had to come running when Estelle would let out a scream when she found the mouse, the gopher, bird, snake, or whatever the cats had brought in to play with, and then had rolled them up in a throw rug in the living room or hall. For a while they had a pet skunk - not by choice - for it had come into the yard, and when Bill would go to get a gun, the cats would walk on both sides of the skunk so Estelle wouldn't let bill shoot the skunk out of fear he would hit the cats. In 1982, Bill and Estelle, their nephew Billy, and Brooks Bryce went into partnership to purchase the Transamerica Title Agency. They took great pride in the growth and success of the business. Estelle was a great businesswoman, and whenever there was a challenge at the Title Company that seemed overwhelming, Billy would go visit with her, and she would patiently listen, and then cut to the real meat of the problem and provide an insight and advice as to just how to handle the problem. Estelle had a knack for business and could make the most complicated problem simple. Mostly, though, Estelle was a listener, and felt that the answer to most questions was within the person asking, they only had to discover it within themselves. 1984 was another tough year for Estelle. She and Bill were enjoying their retirement when Bill's cancer returned, and he developed incurable lung cancer. Estelle patiently and lovingly cared for Bill, until he finally passed away. Again, her world was laid desolate. Almost inconsolable, once again she would wish that she could climb into the casket with him, much as she had with Duane. She felt that it would not be long until she joined them but that wouldn't come for another 25 years. Estelle kept her home up, and surrounded herself with family, and loved the visits of anyone coming by the house. About 1992, she developed macular degeneration in her eyes, and lost the ability to read, and eventually to see, except for very limited peripheral vision. Estelle in true form went about adjusting to her disabilities and most people would never have noticed anything different. There was one time I did see Estelle good and angry, and it is lucky for the IVI`VD agent who took away her drivers license that she was such a lady, as her ears were steaming, and mine were burning by the time I got her back home as she expressed her displeasure of his lack of understanding of her needs with regard to her driving privileges. However when I realized she couldn't see past the hood ornament, I had a different grateful view of the officer. Estelle was very independent, and insisted on living alone. After she fell and broke her first hip, she consented to a lifeline alert so she could call for help if she needed it, and she did need to use it about 4 times over the years. Shortly thereafter she hired a housekeeper/comp anion in Angie Chavez who came in part of the day to help Estelle with the cleaning and with her meals. They became the best of friends over the years, and Angie stayed by her side up until the end. After she broke her second hip, it was apparent that she needed more around the clock care, and she was able to find Sandra Foote, Leona Jackson and Dorothy. These ladies became best friends and sisters to Estelle and she loved them each dearly, and they took excellent care of Estelle. They were her angels, and I cannot express the thanks I have in my heart for each of them. As a wife, a mother, businesswoman, Christian, humanitarian and friend, Estelle Morris was one of a kind. Her love knew no boundaries. Her charity crossed all borders. Her friendship was unconditional. As a woman, she possessed those qualities that make us all human, but she rose above the depths of human weakness and with strength and love she patterned her life in a way that she could invite God to be her houseguest at any time. Estelle's table; was always set and her mantle clean, and when she passed peacefully from this world on Monday July 20, 2009, she passed with a clean slate, and entered into the rest that she so rightfully deserves. Individually, we all have memories of Estelle Morris that are sacred to each of us. May we each reflect back on those warm moments and lock those memories in our hearts and resolve that when the opportunity arises, that we will pass on some of Estelle Morris through the good deeds that we do. May we all learn from her example and pattern our lives after the lessons that she has taught each of us over the years.