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Willy was born
January 24, 1933 in Atchelitz, (now part of Chilliwack) B.C. Canada, the
daughter of Clarence and Pearl Finney. The family moved to West
Vancouver, B.C. when she was three years old.
Willy has one
sibling, a brother, Dr. Arthur Finney, 78, still preaching, and living
in Kamiah, Idaho with his family. The family was raised, baptized and
confirmed in the Anglican Church of Canada. Willy and Dick joined Mt.
Olive Lutheran Church in 1969, moved away in 1980 and returned in 1993.
Most of Willy’s
public education was in B.C. until midway through the eleventh grade
when the family moved to Salem, OR. She graduated from Salem High
School in 1951 and went on to Merritt Davis Business School in Salem for
a year, graduating in 1952.
At the same time,
she met Richard (Dick) Morris and married him on July 4, 1952. They
moved to Portland for a year; he doing drafting for the old Portland Gas
and Coke and Willy working for the regional office of Metro Golden Mayer
(which was a great job doing secretarial work and viewing all the good
movies for $.10 a piece).
Dick was asked back
to the Oregon Department of Forestry to work out of the Forest Grove
office in the Engineering Department so he and Willy moved to
Hillsboro. Willy got a job as secretary in the Trust Department of the
old Commercial Bank in Hillsboro. After seven years, she decided to be
a ‘stay-at-home’ Mom with two children, Pamela Morris, now forty-eight
years old and Jim Morris, now forty-six years old.
Later Willy attended
Portland Community College and Portland State University for three years
majoring in elementary education, but due to boredom, quit before she
got her degree. She went on to work in a doctor’s office in Hillsboro
for over five years doing lab and secretarial work while the kids were
in high school.
Then she went back
to work for First National, Interstate and now Wells Fargo in Forest
Grove, Salem, Beaverton, finally transferring to a corporate banking
center in Portland. She retired from banking in 1992 after twenty-two
years of banking.
A BIG EVENT: In
Portland, Oregon, April 1993, Willy became a naturalized U.S. citizen.
Dick was with the
Forestry Department for thirty seven years working out of the Forest
Grove office. He supervised the Road Department and Engineering
Department. He was transferred to the office in Salem in 1980. He
retired in 1985 at the age of fifty-five. He started his own surveying
business and did most of his work for the North West logging companies.
Dick formally retired from his own business in 1995 to the Golf Course.
HOBBIES: The early
years: swimming, boating, water skiing, cross country skiing, and
bowling.
They also loved to
travel and went to Mexico many times, also Hawaii, the Bahamas, Cook
Islands, England, Ireland, and Scotland. They went twice around the
U.S. in their RV (once with the kids). They were “Snowbirds” in
retirement spending winters in Desert Hot Springs, CA.
Now Willy gardens,
sews, quilts, reads and spends good times with friends.
Dick died in May
2001 of parathyroid cancer.
Since the Willy and
Mary Peters have traveled on seven trips ranging from Branson, MO,
Desert Hot Springs, CA (on winter), three cruises in the Caribbean and
Panama, Hawaii, the Oregon Coast and Idaho with lots of hi-jinks and
laughs.
Morris’ have had
homes in Forest Grove, Salem, beach house in Lincoln City, up on Bald
Peak and finally our home at 2404 Strasburg Drive, Forest Grove. Pamela
(daughter) lives next door. Jim (son) lives with her at present. Two
grandchildren: Andy, 26 and Becky 25.
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