Marquise Elizabeth Goodspeed Morris

Dee Etta Harrold & Marquise Morris

    She was the daughter of William Allen Goodspeed and Dee Etta Harrold.  She was the middle child in a family of seven children; four girls, Helen Marie, Marquise Elizabeth, Mary Virginia, Ruth and three boys, Edwin Harrold, Arthur Allen, and John.  Ruth, Arthur and John all died in early childhood.

      

The following is from the Eulogy given by Ruth Louise Morris Blimes at her mother’s funeral.

     Many things shape our lives and our personalities and I would like you to know a few of the things about our mother that made her the remarkable person she was.  She was born 3 June 1901 in the  house she lived in most of her life.  Her young years were for the most part happy years.  She's told me so many stories that she remembered from her early life.

     Not all lives run smoothly forever though and at the tender age of nine she was to learn this.  When the father she adored deserted his family, she had her first taste of adversity.  Adversity is not an uncommon thing and is no respecter of persons.  In fact, every life has many adversities and disappointments.  They can either make you a stronger person or defeat you.

Mary Goodspeed, Victor Verity & Marquise

     Our mother grew up with cousins who had also been abandoned by their father and her bosom buddy, the girl across the street, was one of a large family who were also abandoned by their father.  (Bill used to remind me of this trait in our family and tell me to mind my P's and Q;s.)
    

510 High St. Nelsonville, Ohio

Her family of five and her two cousins and their mother moved in with the Harrold grandparents at 510 High Street.  They became a happy group and I have listened many times of their escapades and happy times.

     I have a snapshot of a mock wedding that took place when she was about 10.  She was the bride with a lace curtain as a veil and a bunch of wild flowers as her bouquet.  Her cousin, Victor Verity, was the bridegroom and sister, Mary, the bridesmaid who stood with a scowl on her face because she wasn't the bride. 

I've heard the stories of how her grandmother was the family doctor who patched up their cuts and bruises they got from running about on the hills.  So she was a happy person in those days when life was simple and you made your own entertainment.

Marquise age 8

     When she was four years old, living in Kimberly in sight of the grade school, she ran off every day and went to school.  Finally the teacher told her mother to just let her come. She had a phenomenal memory and could still recite poems she had learned in her youth. She had a love of learning that never diminished.
She graduated at sixteen, went to Ohio U. for a year, going back and forth on the streetcar every day.  She got a teaching certificate and by age seventeen she was teaching school at the East School in Nelsonville.
     

Roy & Marquise

She met our Dad and after he came home from the Navy, they married and soon had a young family.  But adversity was not through with her.

     The Great Depression came along.  Some of you remember it and some of you are too young.  I remember some things about it.  Our mother accepted this challenge, this adversity, and became a strong willed person.   She was a hard worker and she managed the dollar a day that dad made in such a way that none of us ever realized we were poor.  By raising a large garden and our own chickens and turkeys and by working for my uncle who had a farm they would get a half of beef or a pig.  We always had plenty to eat.  She made most of our clothes from material that cost about ten cents a yard and made countless quilts and things for the house.

     To succeed in this she had to become a strong willed, determined mother and wife.  This was to affect all of us.  She was sometimes short tempered because we didn't always live up to expectations.  She had neither the time nor energy to waste on disobedient children and I know I got paddled every day whether I needed it or not.  Consequently as I was growing up we didn't always see eye to eye on many things.  But she was a mother who took good care of all of us.

Bob, Marquise, Marilyn, Kenny, Roy & Ruth Morris

     She was the best cook around and I have never tasted a pie as good as the ones she made.  She would go out in the kitchen and bake a couple of pies and while they were cooling she would decide what to cook for our meal.
     She was a good neighbor who willingly sat up all night with the baby next door who had pneumonia so his mother could sleep that she might take care of him the next day.
     She took care of all of us when we had our children and gave us a couple of weeks R & R before we took our babies home.
     She was a good Christian who read and knew her Bible.
     She was honest to a fault and taught us to do unto others as we would have them do unto us.  I remember a song she taught me when I was very young.  It was to the tune of Love Lifted Me.  But the words were "John 3:16, John 3:16, when nothing else can help, John 3:16”.  So I learned that verse very early in life.  "For God so Loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

     To my mom’s words I would like to add the following story. (by Bill Blimes,  Jr)

Grandma on her porch swing.  This is how I remember her.

     When I was fifteen I went to live with my grandparents.  I was not a very good student in school and I didn’t get a long with my dad.  Grandma offered to take me in to help me with my studies and to bring peace in my parents’ home.  So for my Junior and Senior years in high school I lived with them in Nelsonville, Ohio.  I remember having a conversation about Grandma’s first name, Marquise.  She told me that her father had a good friend that was also a mining engineer and he was from Marquise, France.  He named Grandma for this town located in Northern France.  Recently while I was in France I had the opportunity to visit this small village.  It is located a little south of Calais and has a history associated with mining. You can read more about this visit in our blog, “Further Adventures of Bill & Sylvia”.