Russell Leon Morrison
Funeral services for Russell Leon Morrison, 86, Clinton resident, will be at 10 a.m. Friday in the Clinton First Christian Church, officiated by Doyle Kinney.
Morrison died Saturday, Dec. 27, 2014, in the Integris Clinton Regional Hospital. He was born Oct. 2, 1928 to Grover B. Morrison and Beulah Verna (Linn) Morrison in Dill City.
Morrison lived in the Dill City area until he was 7 years old and then moved to Clinton with his family, and he attended his schooling there.
While attending his senior year in high school and at age 17, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served during the end of World War II. He was sent to Japan and at that time he signed up for the 11th Airborne and became a paratrooper.
In 1947 he was making a jump and was injured and he soon received a medical discharge.
Morrison was honored with receiving the G.I. Bill and was allowed to go back and complete his high school degree in 1948.
He worked as a truck driver in his father’s business, Morrison Oil Company, and he was soon to marry Anita Ann Russell on June 7, 1950. The couple’s first child, Tommie Lynn, was born in 1951.
The young couple, along with their daughter, Tommie Lynn, moved to Weatherford where they ran a service station. In 1952 they became residents of Oklahoma City where he was employed with Blacks, Val and Bryson Steel Company.
That job came to an end and they returned to Clinton and in 1953. Morrison joined the Clinton Police Force and later transferred to Clinton Fire Department in 1960. In 1970 he became a truck driver for Harris Oil Company and Aneshansley Enterprises hauling gasoline.
He retired at the age of 62 and had spent many years caring for his wife, Anita Ann, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1975.
Preceding him in death were his wife; parents; two brothers, G.B. Morrison Jr. and Gerald T. Morrison; a sister, Melba Ingram; a nephew, Jerry Morrison; and his father and mother-in-law, Wilbur and Mildred Russell.
Morrison was a member of the First Christian Church.
Survivors include a daughter, Tommie Lynn Walker, and her husband, Bill, of Clinton; two sons, Russell Leon Morrison Jr., and his wife, Mary, of Billings, Mont. and Grover Eugene Morrison, and his wife, Wanda, of Houston, Texas; an “adopted” son, Jack Butler and his wife, Charlene, of Edmond; a brother, Roy Morrison and his wife, Billie Jo, of Clinton; a sister, Wilda Ray Hankins, and her husband, Jim, of Sherman, Texas; four grandchildren, Rachelle Roberts, and her husband, Butch, of Norman, Brandon Walker, and his wife, Dawn, of Midway, Texas, Broderick Peyton Walker, and his wife, Lacey, of Clinton, and Robert Jackola, and his wife, Brandy, of Wichita Falls, Texas; five great-grandchildren, Reid Roberts and Rylee Roberts, Rayden and Madison Walker and Kevin Jakola; a sister-in-law, Aleta Fields, and her husband, Ray, of Clovis, N.M.
Burial will follow in the Mount Hope Cemetery in Custer City, under the direction of Kiesau-Lee Funeral Home in Clinton.
The family has suggested memorial contributions in his honor may be made to Gideon’s International, C/O Clinton Gideon Camp, P.O. Box 281, Clinton, OK 73601.