Mr. Joseph Morris

COLUMBIA Graveside service for Joseph Jarrell Morris Sr., 86, will be held at 11:00 a.m. Friday, November 14, 2014, in St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church memorial gardens, 5220 Clemson Avenue, Columbia. The Reverend Sally Johnston will officiate. The family will receive friends at the residence following the service. Dunbar Funeral Home, Devine Street Chapel, is assisting the family. Mr. Morris died at home on Sunday, November 9, 2014, following a battle with cancer. Born June 25, 1928, in Atlanta, Ga., he was a son of the late Ralph Milledge Morris Jr. and Iris Bradfield Jarrell Morris. The family moved from Atlanta in 1933 to Gainesville, Ga. and shortly thereafter moved to Greenville for a year before moving to Charlotte, N.C. in 1936. In Charlotte, they lived across Park Road from the Graham Brothers dairy farm. Mr. Morris said the time in Charlotte across from the dairy farm was the most enjoyable and informative of his life. He spent many hours following the dairy hands in the fields, plowing, harvesting, milking, bottling and the many other farm duties. Mr. Morris was the keeper of the family cow which he milked twice each day. In the summer of 1940, the family moved to Columbia and bought a lot and built a home on Forest Lake. This was the second home on the lake, the first being that of the William L. Boyd family. Mr. Morris attended Hand Junior and Dreher High schools, graduating in 1944. He attended the University of South Carolina in the fall where he was a member of Sigma Chi Fraternity. In 1946, he joined the U.S. Army as an infantry soldier. After basic training, Mr. Morris served in the 35th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division during the Japanese Occupation until his discharge in 1948. He returned to USC for two additional years before being recalled to service during the Korean War. During his 22 year Army career that followed, he served overseas in Japan, France, Korea, Libya, Vietnam, France and Germany, as well as two TDY tours in the far north during construction of the DEW line. In 1951, he completed the Army officer’s candidate school at Fort Riley, Kansas and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Transportation Corps. He attended the Basic Transportation Officers, Advanced Transportation Officers, Advanced Traffic Management courses and the Command and General Staff School. He managed to complete his undergraduate degree at the College of William and Mary and the University of Maryland in Heidelberg, Germany. He was awarded the Legion of Merit, Vietnam Service, National Defense Service, Bronze Star and the Vietnam Campaign medals. After retirement from the Army in 1970, Mr. Morris was employed as Administrator of the Richland County Health Department for about a year. He then became the Assistant Finance Director of Richland County for 17 years before retiring in 1988. After military service and returning to Columbia, the family bought a home on Forest Lake and lived there until his death. Living on Forest Lake as a boy, paddling the headwaters, swamps and creeks and later in senior life, watching the wildlife from his front porch was one of the most cherished aspects of his life. Surviving are his sister, Mrs. Iris Morris Shealy of Quitman, Ga.; three children, Joseph J. Morris Jr. and his wife, Laurie Holland Morris of Columbia, Kenneth C. Morris of Raleigh, N.C., Marthann Morris of Columbia; four grandchildren, Bryan J. Morris of Washington, D.C., Jessie D. Morris of Chicago, John K. Morris of Chicago and Dannielle G. Morris of Philadelphia. He was predeceased by his wife, Imogene and a brother, Ralph M. Morris III. Mr. Morris was a member of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church, the Charleston and Columbia Ski clubs, the Columbia Stage Society, South Carolina Philharmonic, Columbia Museum of Art and the Richland County Library. In lieu of flowers or food, memorials may be made to Carolina Children’s Home, 3201 Trenholm Road, PO Box 4465, Columbia, SC 29204.