Jessie Morrison Collection

Jessie Hagler "Miss Jessie" Morrison was born on February 5, 1919, in Forrest County, Mississippi, one of nine children born to Eva B. Morrison and William Sylvester Morrison. The family moved to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in 1903, where William Morrison became the manager of a small brickyard on the banks of the Bouie River, just northwest of Hattiesburg. In 1904, Mr. Morrison and Mr. Ira Gaston purchased the company and renamed it Riverside Brick and Manufacturing Company.

Jessie graduated from the Demonstration School on the State Teachers College (now USM) campus in 1937. In 1947, she received a Bachelor's degree from Mississippi Southern College (now USM).

In 1943 she enlisted in the U. S. Waves, and was sent to Hunter College in New York for training. Afterward, she served in the hospital corps at the U. S. Naval Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas, and was later transferred to New Orleans. She left the service in 1944.

She was employed by Western Union and Cranston's Commercial School before landing a job as secretary to the dean of Mississippi Southern College, Dr. R. A. McLemore, in 1953. From 1955 until her retirement in 1986, she served as secretary, executive secretary and administrative assistant to the president of the University of Southern Mississippi. Once Jessie retired, she continued to work part time in the same office.

Miss Jessie was a lifetime member of Trinity Episcopal Church in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. She was also a member of the Mississippi Association of Office Personnel, National Association of Office Personnel, the Mystic Krewe of Zeus, and the Daughters of the Confederate States of America.

Jessie H. Morrison died on February 22, 1991. She is interred in the Roseland Park Cemetery in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.