Code talker dies in California
By Noel Lyn Smith
Navajo Times
WINDOW ROCK, July 24, 2011
(Courtesy photo)
Navajo Code Talker Joe Morris Sr.
Navajo Code Talker Joe Morris Sr., 85, died Sunday (July 17) in Loma Linda, Calif., according to his family.
Morris had been hospitalized at the VA medical facility there since suffering a stroke in late November, his daughter Colleen Anderson said in a telephone interview Tuesday.
"I will remember his modesty," Anderson said. "He never thought of himself as a hero."
According to Anderson, Morris was born in 1926 in Indian Wells, Ariz. His parents were the late Alice and Charley Morris.
He was Kinlich'i'nii (Red House Clan), born for Tsénj'kin' (Cliff Dweller Clan). His chei was Tábaahá (Edge Water Clan) and his nál' was Tótsohnii (Big Water Clan).
When Morris was 12, he attended school in Leupp, Ariz., until the school closed and converted into an internment camp for Japanese-Americans after World War II started.
Once the school closed, Morris returned home to herd sheep.
When he was 17, he "fudged" his age to obtain a draft card and joined the Marines in 1944, Anderson said.
He completed five months of top-secret code talker training at Camp Pendleton, Calif., the same year. More than 400 Navajo Code Talkers were trained there from 1942 to 1945 but information about their service and the code was not declassified until 1968.
Morris was assigned to the 6th Marine Division, 22nd Marine Regiment and served in Guadalcanal, Guam, Saipan, Okinawa and Tinsato, China.
He was awarded the Combat Ribbon, the China Occupation Medal, the Asiatic Pacific Theater Campaign Ribbon and the Expert Rifle Medal.
Morris was discharged Aug. 20, 1946, with the rank of corporal.
After the war Morris worked as a maintenance supervisor for 30 years at the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Barstow, Calif.
Although Morris and his family resided in Daggett, Calif., located eight miles east of Barstow, they returned to the Navajo Nation each summer to visit family in the Indian Wells and Greasewood area.
"They never forgot about their roots," Anderson said.
Morris' last visit to the Navajo Nation was in early November to see his wife's family in Tuba City.
After retiring in 1982, he and his wife Charlotte would travel to powwows throughout California to sell arts and crafts and powwow CDs.
Among their favorites were powwows at California State University-Long Beach, the Orange County Fair, and one put on by the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians.
Morris was a member of the Navajo Code Talkers Association and would tell people about the association whenever he had a speaking engagement, Anderson said.
He traveled to Washington in July 2001 to witness the original 29 code talkers receive the Congressional Gold Medal from President George W. Bush.
Anderson said she and her older brother, Joseph, were in high school when they learned about their father's service as a code talker.
But, she said, the importance of his service did not hit her until 2001 at the gold medal ceremony.
In November 2001, Morris was part of the more than 200 code talkers who received the Congressional Silver Medal at Window Rock.
Anderson said after the release of the 2002 movie "Windtalkers," her father started receiving calls from schools, museums, colleges and universities asking him to share his story.
"He enjoyed doing that because he said people needed to know," Anderson said. "He was always so happy to talk about the code talkers."
Morris was part of a small group of code talkers who traveled to Washington in 2007 to meet with Marine Gen. Peter Pace, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at the Pentagon.
The group gave Pace a Pendleton blanket, which he draped across his shoulders, Anderson said.
Morris also spoke to audiences at Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota, the College of the Sequoias in Visalia, Calif., and at the California state capitol in Sacramento.
One memory Anderson said her father shared about the war, was the time he spoke to fellow code talker Joe Vandever by radio in the field. The Japanese tried to interfere with the call, he told her.
"It sounded like cans being shaken," she recalls him saying.
After that night, Morris wondered if he would ever speak to Vandever again.
The men did reconnect in 1982 at the Gallup Inter-Tribal Ceremonial after someone yelled out Vandever's name and Morris heard the shout.
Anderson recalled that the men hugged each other and her father was so happy about the reunion.
Morris is survived by his wife, Charlotte, and sons Joseph Morris Jr. and Elliott Morris, all of Daggett; his daughter Colleen Anderson of Long Beach, Calif.; and three grandchildren, Chris Morris, Stephanie Morris and Nolen Anderson.
Stephanie followed her grandfather's footsteps into the Marines, where she served for eight years before being discharged in May.
Funeral services for Morris will take place Monday, July 25, in Riverside Calif. A viewing will be held at 10:30 a.m. (PDT) followed by services at 11:30 a.m. at the East Hills Community Church, 20660 Orange Terrace Parkway. Burial will be at 1 p.m. at the National Cemetery, 22495 Van Buren Blvd. in Riverside.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Bank of America, Account No. 2454773221.