MORRIS, Mark N. 1910-1972

MORRIS, FALKENSTEIN, BURTNESS

Posted By: Michael Kearney (email)
Date: 11/24/2002 at 13:47:24

The Clinton Herald Monday January 10, 1972 p. 10 Mark N. Morris, 61, 1018 5th Ave. N. died at 9 p.m. Sunday in Jane Lamb Hospital after a long period of failing health. He was chairman of the Clinton Bridge Commission on which he had served since it was formed in 1944, and had been active in Clinton business and civic life more than 35 years. Rose Croix Masonic services will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the Bragonier-Fay Funeral Home with Paul T. Eastland as orator. Burial will be in Clinton Memorial Park. Visitation will be form 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday in the funeral home. Mark Nelson Morris was born March 22, 1910, in Clinton, the son of Martin and Elizabeth Falkenstein Morris. He attended Lake Forest Academy, Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., and Washington University in St. Louis. He later became associated with his father, Martin Morris, in the Martin Morris Co., which had been founded in 1900. After the death of his father in 1934 he continued the men's clothing business as president of the corporation. Mr. Morris served as president of the Iowa Retail Clothiers Assn. from 1941 to 1942. He was a past president of the Clinton Chamber of Commerce, a past director of the former Upper Mississippi Waterways Assn., and during World War II he was Clinton County Civil Defense chairman. In 1955, he served as general chairman for a Clinton Development Co. fund drive and in 1959 was elected a director of the National Association of Retail Clothiers and Furnishers. Mr. Morris was elected president of the YMCA board of directors in 1963 and the same year was chosen a United Fund trustee. In 1964 he was elected a director of the Motor Club of Iowa. He was a member of the Elks Lodge and various Masonic bodies, including Clinton Consistory Kaaba Shrine and Emulation Lodge, 255, A.F. & A.M. Mr. Morris also was a past president of the Clinton Country Coub and was chairman of the Morris Hotels Corp., which owned and operated the Lafayette and Clinton hotels. Mr. Morris was married Oct. 14, 1944, in St. Louis, Mo. to Capt. Esther Burtness, of Janesville, Wis., then serving as public relations officer, at Clinton's Schick General Hospital. Mr. Morris is survived by his widow; two sons, Martin J. Morris of Oxnard, Calif., and Nelson B. Morris of Clinton and his mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Morris, also of Clinton.