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Jim Lee Morgan (b. 14 Apr 1943, d. 24 Jul 2000)
Jim Lee Morgan (son of James Charles Morgan and Lois Marie McPherson) was born 14 Apr 1943, and died 24 Jul 2000 in Little Rock, AR.
Notes for Jim Lee Morgan:
CIVIC ISSUES INSPIRED SERVICE, POTENT PEN
When something was on Jim Lee Morgan's mind, he never hesitated to pick up a pen and let the editor of the newspaper know all about it.
His frequent missives were sprinkled with exclamation points when he got his dander up about topics as diverse as where the Razorbacks should play - "I would like the people of Little Rock to urge UALR to develop a football program and to fill the coliseum in the future!" -to the vagaries of the IRS---"I can testify to both the lack of good computer use and the insouciance of the IRS in dealing with both their masters (we the public) and their managers (our elected leaders)."
The blunt, lucid language was typical of a man who had moved easily between the academic, political and military arenas during a life that took him to military bases in Germany, stars' homes in Beverly Hills and back again to Little Rock.
Morgan died Monday at the age of 57. He suffered from peripheral neuropathy, his father said, which eventually confined him to a walker and made it difficult for him to live alone. But Morgan's medical troubles didn't affect his intensity or his competitive streak, his father said.
"We must have played 1,000 games of gin rummy," James C. Morgan said of his son. "And the last eight games we played, he won six of them. Which is unusual - even he said so - because I'll bet you there is usually not ten games difference between the games we have won and lost."
As a child, Morgan was a formidable contender. Although his eye-sight in one eye was terrible, forcing him to wear bifocals at the age of 12, he still hit 18 home runs in the 18 games played by his Amarillo, Texas, softball team.
The child of military parents and himself a future Air Force Captain, Morgan moved around for much of his early life, attending five different German schools during the first grade. Eventually, he landed at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, his father's old stomping grounds. There he served as vice president of the student senate, rubbing elbows with well-known Arkansas political figures like Thomas F. "Mack" McLarty, former chief of staff for President Clinton, and former Gov. Jim Guy Tucker. After college, it was Los Angeles - not Washington, D.C., or Little Rock - where Morgan landed. As executive assistant to the mayor of Beverly Hills, he toiled on the same kinds of problems that mayor's offices everywhere deal with - sewer hookups, garbage collection, persuading voters in approve city-issued bonds.
During his California years, Morgan was something of a civic activist, his father said, serving on a committee that advised then Gov. Jerry Brown about the future of the state's university system, teaching courses on business law and economics and working to establish a senior citizens center in Simi Valley.
He stopped only when his health gave out. His father drove halfway across the country to bring Morgan back to Little Rock. Home again, he volunteered with hospice care, counseling people close to death, but his own health was failing and though his apartment was equipped with banisters and hand-holds, he had to live at times at home with his family.
"This guy was sharp," his father said. "He was somebody who could pull people together. He was very intense in his work - whatever he was doing, that's what he was focused on."
Arkansas Democrat Gazette newspaper, July 25, 2000
More About Jim Lee Morgan:
Burial: Unknown, National Cemetery, Little Rock, AR.

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