Harry Morton ¹

  General Notes:

Harry Morton was a lieutenant in the American Army during World War I. Because he was of German ancestry he changed his name to Morton, which displeased his family. We do not know too much about his past but we do know he was a very friendly person and the children thought he was great. He met Ila around 1933 and found out that they got along very well together. Ila left her husband and two children to live with Harry and they opened a restaurant across the street from West View Park in West View, Pennsylvania. In those days the Pittsburgh Railways Company had a deal where you could buy a street car pass for the weekend for 25 cents and ride all over the system without paying anything extra. This was great and my brother, Charles and I made good use of it. It was at my Mother's restaurant that I had my first job as a waiter. I was tremendously impressed by the fact that I could receive tips for good service and I looked forward to going to West View every weekend. My brother was not as interested as I, so a lot of weekends, I went alone. At that time, I was 12 years old. Later my parents were divorced and the restaurant business folded. At that time, my Mother returned to our apartment and took care of my brother and me for a period of 3 months. At that time Harry recovered financially and he and Mom went to live together. After that we had a series of housekeepers who were never really satisfactory and my Dad decided that my brother and I were capable of running the house ourselves. It was during this period that I learned how to cook and clean house. When Harry and Mom relocated, they moved to Alexandria Va. in order to be near Charles, who, at that time was in the Army and stationed at Fort Meade, Va. After the war [World War II], they ended up living with Charles and his wife, Zelphia, in Alexandria,Va. At the end of the war Charles returned home and I received permission to take our base AT6 and fly to Washington, D.C. to renew acquaintances as we hadn't seen each other for 3 years. I made the trip and when I was preparing to leave to fly back to Kansas, Charles wanted to know if he could go with me. I said sure as long as no one else has asked for a ride in the direction of Kansas and Zelphia says OK. After a month in Kansas Charles decided to go home. Irene and I gave him $50.00 and bought him a train ticket to Washington, D.C., and off he went. Later on, we heard from Zelphia that he called her for money to get back to Alexandria from Chicago, because we had left him stranded there.

Harry married Ila Frances Colbert, daughter of Charles Richard Colbert and Lucy Hill Spong, in 1966 in Glendora, CA.¹ (Ila Frances Colbert was born on 27 December 1898 in Hagerstown, MD ¹ and died on 15 January 1991 in Azusa, CA ¹.)