Marion Robert Morrison

MORRISON, WAYNE, BROWN

Posted By: Mary Welty Hart (email)
Date: 2/18/2006 at 17:13:44

JOHN WAYNE DIES (Robert Marion Morrison)

Winterset Madisonian
June 13, 1979

John Wayne, who was born on May 26, 1907 in Winterset as Marion Robert Morrison, died Monday night, June 11, 1979, at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, Calif., at the age of 72.

Mr. Wayne entered the hospital on January 10, and two days later had his stomach removed during a 9 1/2 hour operation when a cancerous tumor was discovered. He had won his first bout with cancer in 1964 when his cancerous left lung was removed.

The son of Clyde L. and Mary A. Brown Morrison, he lived in Winterset and Earlham areas until about the age of six. His father was employed at the South Side Drug Store in Winterset before purchasing a drug store in Earlham.

The Morrisons moved from Earlham to a ranch near Lancaster, Calif., as homesteaders when young Marion was six. Two years later, the family moved to Glendale, Calif., and Mr. Morrison returned to the drug business.

Mr. Wayne attended the University of Southern California where he was a tackle on the USC football team before dropping out for financial reasons after two years.

He met directors John Ford and Raoul Walsh on a summer job carrying props. Walsh gave him his first starring role in 1930 in "The Big Trail". Mr. Wayne acted in Westerns for nearly 10 years until Ford made him a star in 1939 by casting him as Kid Ringo in "Stagecoach".

After years of playing in rugged Westerns, Mr. Wayne won an Oscar for best actor in 1969 as Marshal Rooster Cogburn in the film, "True Grit."

He was married three times and was the father of seven children.