By Gerri Miller
Elmore/Autauga News
Editor’s Note: Martha Poole Simmons, a volunteer with the American Red Cross, contributed historical content for this article.
The pews were full in New Home Missionary Baptist Church Sunday night as the church hosted a 100-year birthday party for a popular and well-loved veteran.
The celebration for John F. Morrow began with a worship service which included lots of beloved Gospel hymns, awards, and Mr. Morrow’s account of his life both as a civilian and as a soldier in WWII. There were people represented from all over the United States. There was a special video with congratulations from church members and many other friends of Morrow.
Some of the crowd favorites were “The Old Rugged Cross,” “Victory in Jesus,” and “No One Ever Cared for Me Like Jesus.”
“His devotion (Morrow) tonight is a hundred years in the making,” said New Home Pastor Eric Sutton. “We have looked forward to this for a year now. I have never met someone who laughs so much. He is kind, he is a child of God.”
Morrow said his life began in the small town of Big Flat, AK. It had only one grocery store, two churches and a farm center. “There was lots of singing and dancing,” he said. “Dad always made me sit in the front pew.”
He said he can remember being four-years- old and living with his family of sharecroppers on a cotton farm. Morrow became extremely sick when he turned five and was absent from school for a long time.
He said he never had a date throughout high school. “I didn’t want anything to do with girls,” Morrow said. The first girl he ever dated, Joyce, became his true love and then his wife after a few months of dating. She was a beautiful girl with a bow in her hair that he met at a festival, Morrow said.
When he was 19, Morrow joined the U.S. Army. He learned to drive Sherman tanks while he was stationed at Fort Knox, KY. He got more training to drive each of the Army’s vehicles while stationed at Camp Polk, LA., followed by desert training at Death Valley, CA., paratrooper training at Fort Benning, GA., and frigid training at Camp Shanks, N.Y.
He was an Army tank driver in one of the biggest and best-known battles of WWII: The Battle of the Bulge. Lt. General George S. Patton was his commander during the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes, a region in southeast Belgium that extends into Luxembourg, Germany and France. The battle took place in the coldest months of the year. It was also the costliest action ever fought by the United States.
Morrow endured extremely hazardous combat. He was responsible for maneuvering tanks in the Ardennes region in rugged terrain that encompassed rolling valleys, meandering rivers, extensive caves and dense forests.
“The thing that sticks most in my mind is how scared I was, and I was sitting there seeing German tanks shooting at me,” Morrow said. “I went in because I love this country, and I always want this country to be free. Don’t let anybody ever tell you that there wasn’t any prayer going on out there.”
Despite heavy casualties, Patton’s successful maneuvering of the Third Army to Bastogne provef vital to the Allied defense. It led to the neutralization of the German counter offensive.
Morrow was deployed sailing on the Queen Mary to Scotland, landing at Normandy after the Allies D-Day landing. His unit’s first mission with the 23rd Armor Division was to recapture Paris from the Nazis. During this mission, he suffered burns to his eyes and was hospitalized for several weeks.
He was wounded three more times while driving a half-track vehicle. A half-track isa civilian or military vehicle with regular wheels on the front for steering, and caterpillar tracks on the back to propel the vehicle and carry most of the load. The purpose of this combination is to produce a vehicle with the cross-country capabilities of a tank and the handling of a wheeled vehicle.
While still driving the half-track, he suffered a bullet wound to one ear, escaping serious injury because he turned his head to the side just before he was shot.
After the success in the Battle of the Bulge, Morrow was the first tank driver to cross the Rhine River as the Army entered Germany. Morrow received the European Theater of Operations Medal with four clusters and also received citations from colonels.
Morrow’s unit of tankers participated in the liberation of concentration camps. His unit of tankers gave all of their food to liberated prisoners expecting to be replenished by a supply truck. The truck was surrounded, however, and his unit had no food or water for three days.
Morrow was discharged from service in October of 1945. He returned to Arkansas where he found his beauty with the bow at the Rhine Festival and asked her daddy if she could ride in his (Morrow’s) car. The rest is history.
He earned his B.S. Degree in Science at Northeastern Teachers College in Tahlequah, OK. He taught high school biology and chemistry and coached basketball for 16 years. “My wife earned enough degrees to cover four or five doctors,” Morrow laughed.
Next on the agenda was a job at Hanford Works, a nuclear production complex in Richmond, WA, for seven years. He also worked in dry wall construction in houses and commercial buildings. He retired in 1988.
Sadly, his precious beauty with the bow, Joyce, died after 54 years of marriage. He then married Carie Nell and that union lasted for 20 years. He said he and Carie enjoyed playing dominoes with friends each week. Since 1957, Morrow has served in the ministry. He serves as pastor to senior adults at New Home Baptist Church and the Clearview Baptist Church in Chilton County.
Morrow said he never will forget the first message God gave him letting him know he was to enter the ministry. “It was the first message I received when I opened my Bible. That message continued when we sang ‘Nothing but the Blood of Jesus.’ God made a preacher out of me.”
During the Sunday night church service, Rear Admiral W. Kent Davis, commissioner of the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs, presented Morrow with a Medal of Commendation from Gov. Kay Ivey. Letters of Commendation were also presented from President Joe Biden, U.S. Representative Rick Crawford and U.S. Senator Tom Cotton.
When asked the secret for a long life, Morrow gave these tips:
- Work hard
- Stay away from liquor
- Don’t smoke or chew tobacco
- Stay away from the bird- (Meaning no fried chicken or meats topped with gravy).
When asked why he has lived so long, he said:
“I just know when God takes me away there will be a plan.”
When asked what prayer means to him, he said:
“Often when I pray, God is talking to me through His book. We are friends for a lifetime,” he said. “Prayer means everything to me. When I open the Bible, God’s word is looking straight at me. When you are praying, really talk to the Lord. I will read sections of the Bible over and over until I understand what God is saying to me.”
See More Photos of the Celebration below.
