Married on June 4, 1932
Floyd T. Morgan & Bertha Elizabeth Ferenbach
Floyd T. Morgan, Bertha Elizabeth Ferenbach
Grandmother Morgan with all of her children at dinner.
My Grandmother with her older sister my
Great Aunt Mary and her younger brother
my Great Uncle Robert Ferenbach.
My Grandmother with her sisters my Great
Aunt Mary and my Great Aunt Theresa.
St. John the Baptist Parish where my Grandmother
Morgan spent many of her later years.
Morgan family home at 5238 Murdoch.  
Picture is of my brother sent to me for my 48th birthday.
Joseph Morgan, Mick Maurer
Mick Maurer, Bertha Morgan
Christopher Morgan, Mick Maurer
My mom's youngest brother, my Uncle
Chris age 4 and me age 1
My godfather Uncle Joe Morgan and me in 1957.
Joe Ferenbach, Floyd Morgan, Bertha Ferenbach Morgan,
Edna Morgan June 4, 1932
Grandmother Morgan with Uncle Larry, Aunt Kay
and Uncle Frank Morgan
Grandmother Morgan on my Prep South HS
graduation day 1971
Ring bearer at the Wedding of my godfather
Uncle Joe and Aunt Diane Morgan.
Lacledes Landing in St. Louis
St. Mary Magdalen Church the Morgan parish while they lived on Murdock Street.
Two major Irish neighborhoods in St. Louis were the Kerry
Patch in North St. Louis and Dogtown in South St. Louis.
The one thing we know for sure about Grandfather Floyd Morgan's early life is
that he was hospitalized with a concussion and major head trauma when he
was about twenty years of age.  On his way to work one day, as he was in the
process of getting off of a streetcar, his pants got snagged by an automobile that
was trying to get around the streetcar, but go too close.  Grandmother Morgan
wrote in a letter  to one of her children: "the lady driving the car didn't know she
was dragging him along.  People kept hollering at her to stop.  She had no idea
why.  By the time she stopped he already had brain damage and was delirious
for days.  He only came out of the comma when his dear mother (Ida Shawen
Morgan) arrived at the hospital.  She held his hand and said 'sonny boy...sunny
boy.' Every one was amazed when he suddenly responded to her voice."

It was while he was recovering from his head wounds that Grandmother Bertha
Morgan's older sister, Mary Ferenbach Beil, introduced Bertha to Floyd.  Joe Beil,
Mary's husband, was Floyd's best friend at the time.  Bertha was immediately
attracted to Floyd because she thought he had such beautiful big, brown eyes.  
Their relationship did not progress very far, though, because she had already
decided she wanted to follow in the footsteps of the "Little Flower", St. Theresa of
Lisieux, by becoming a Carmelite Nun.  Before she entered the convent,
however, she did have at least one date with Floyd in which she said that if she
ever did get married, the man she married would have to have at least two
thousand dollars in the bank.  One can understand such a desire from a young
lady who grew up in relative poverty on a family farm near Jerseyville, Illinois, but
one can only marvel at her prescience.  The stock market crash of 1929 occurred
the very next year.
Grandmother Morgan is known for her legendary chocolate chip, peanut butter, and oatmeal cookies.  As well
as her fried chicken and fried pork-chop sandwiches.  But every major holiday meal were Sweet French Buns
Bertha entered the Carmelite Monastery in St. Louis when she was twenty years
of age, but her stay there lasted only two years.  She had assumed that devoting
herself to the religious life would mean that she could spend a majority of her
time praying before the Blessed Sacrament in the monastery chapel.  Her
assumption proved wrong.  In fact, she was allowed very little time to pray in the
chapel.  Instead she was required to clean floors and do other domestic tasks
like coking and baking and doing dishes.  She had also assumed that the
religious community she was entering would be characterized by love and
kindness.  This assumption proved wrong as well.  In fact, she was required to
wear not only different but a poorer quality of clothing than that worn by the other
postulants, and made to feel as though she was actually a servant to the other
postulants.  So she decided to practice her faith in a less demeaning way.
Soon after Bertha left the convent, her sister Mary once again invited her to her home.  And, once again, the young Floyd Morgan was waiting
there to see her.  Amazingly, even though two years had passed, Floyd still had to wear a white hat to protect the still healing wound on the back
of his head.  The very presence of this skull cap indicated just how slowly his head wound was healing.  Neither of them knew at the time that
this head would eventually lead to his untimely death just twenty years later.  Nor did they know, at the time, that the two of them would bring
eleven children into this world during that twenty year period.  One thing they did know for certain was that Floyd had not saved up that two
thousand dollars which Bertha thought she deserved from any man who wanted to marry her.  He explained to her that she was convinced she
would remain in the convent, and therefore he spent the only  money he was able to save buying new furniture for his mother.  She figured that
anyone who would do something so wonderful for his mother, especially during those Depression years, must be pretty special.  The rest is
Morgan Family history.

Their wedding took place on June 4, 1932, at the Church of the Holy Ghost in Jerseyville, Illinois.  They were both twenty-three years of age at the
time, although he was eight months her junior.  After the wedding they drove fifteen miles south to Alton, Illinois, to have their picture taken by a
professional photographer.  They got married during the Great Depression, and did not have much money for a honeymoon, but they were able
to borrow a relative's car for one week.  In essence, their honeymoon consisted of their driving from one relative to another as they continued the
celebration of their marriage.  At night they stayed at the Ferenbach homestead, which gave Floyd's mother-in-law the opportunity to play a
practical joke on him.  While he and his bride were out making the rounds visiting his new relatives, Katerina crawled under the wedding
couple's bed and tied a cowbell to the springs beneath the mattress.  Great Grandmother Ferenbach obviously had a less serious side that was
not readily captured by the camera.
The first child of Floyd and Bertha was born nine months and twenty days later.  It
was the first of many children to come, but none of them would have been born if
Bertha had followed her doctor's orders.  He told her that because of her physical
condition, the nature of which he never explained to her satisfaction, a second
pregnancy would threaten her life.  In the end they had eleven children during their
time together, Floyd and Bertha had another pregnancy that never came to term.  It
was an ectopic (i.e., outside the womb) pregnancy that occurred between what were
the seventh and eighth full term births, and it was the closest Bertha came to that
gave prediction given by her doctor following her very first delivery.  Since
grandmother was in the hospital, and grandfather needed to work every day,
someone need to take care of the seven Morgan children.  The oldest, my mother
Margaret, was only eight years of age, and the youngest was just nine months at the
time.  The solution was to place them in the German St. Vincent Orphanage in St.
Louis, for at least a month during grandmother's stay in the hospital and her
subsequent recuperation at home.  Their eleven children were: Marge (b. 1933),
Anna (b. 1934), Tom (b. 1935), Joe (b. 1936), Bernie (b. 1938), Larry (b. 1939), Frank
(b. 1940), Pete (b. 1942), Kay (b. 1944, d. 2001), Jim (b. 1946), and Chris (1950).
Grandmother Morgan holding Frank, on ground is Bernadette and Grandfather
Morgan; first row is Joe, Larry, Anna and Tom; standing is my mom Margaret.
Aunt Bernie, her husband Denny, Grandmother
Morgan, Karen and my Uncle Chris Morgan 1985
Uncle Frank, and my cousin Tony,
Grandmother Morgan, Mary,
cousin Gina, and Aunt Bernie in
1981.
In 1979 Grandmother Morgan, her sister Mary Biel, Uncle
Frank and his wife Mary, and Great Uncle Joe Biel (who was
Grandfather Floyd's best friend who introduced him to my
Grandmother).
Uncle Frank and Mary in
Germany while working as
teachers for the US Military.
Floyd Thomas Morgan (b. 1904 in East St. Louis, Il., d. 1953 in St. Louis Mo.)
Married June 4, 1932, in
Jerseyville, Illinois
Bertha Elizabeth Ferenbach, (b. 1908 in Fieldon, IL, d. 1998 in St. Louis, Mo.)
They had 11 children:

  • Margaret Mary Morgan (b. 1933 in St. Louis, Mo)
Married June 21, 1952 in St. Louis, Mo.
John Anthony Maurer, Jr. (b. 1952 in St. Louis, Mo.)
1. Michael Thomas "Mick" Maurer (alias Floyd)
2. John Anthony Maurer, III
3. Laura Jean Maurer
4. Teresa Ann Maurer
5. Marilyn Elizabeth Maurer
6. Janet Marie Maurer

  • Anna Marie Morgan (b. 1934 in St. Louis, Mo.)
Married November 21, 1960 in St. Louis, Mo.
Thomas Joseph Krupinski (b. ?0
1. Belinda Ann Krupinski
2. Christopher Thomas Krupinski
3. Anthony Joseph Krupinski
4. Michelle Marie Krupinski

  • Thomas Edward Morgan (b. 1935 in St. Louis, Mo.)
Married February 15, 1958 in St. Louis, Mo.
Martha Sue Chamberlain (b. ?)
1. Daniel Thomas Morgan
2. David Joseph Morgan
3. Donna Ann Morgan
4. Paul Michael Morgan

  • Floyd Joseph Morgan (b. 1936 in St. Louis, Mo.)
Married May 6, 1961 in St. Louis, MO.
Diana Eileen Schneider (b. ?)
1. Scott Joseph Morgan
2. Steven James Morgan
3. Robert Patrick Morgan
4. Catherine Elizabeth Morgan
5. James Charles Morgan
6. Timothy Michael Morgan
7. Laura Ann Morgan

  • Bernadette Mary Morgan (b. 1938 in St. Louis, Mo.)
Married on February 2, 1963 in St. Louis, Mo.,
John Anthony Polizzi (b. ?)
1. Anthony John Polizzi
2.Gina Maria Polizzi
and Married on August 11, 1984 in Popular Bluff, Mo.
Dennis Dean Doyle (b. ?)

  • Lawrence Albert Morgan (b. 1939 in St. Louis, Mo.)
Married on October 23, 1965 in Cahokia, Il.
Flora Abui Immaculata Fumey (b. ?)
1. Nicholad Kojo Morgan
2. Narissa Ann Frances Morgan
3. Esi Marie Morgan
4. adopted Maxwell Takyi Opoku Morgan

  • Francis William Morgan (B. 1940 in St. Louis, Mo.)
Married on July 5, 1971 in Gibraltar, British colony
Mary Francis Finney (b. ?)
1. John Morgan

  • George Peter Morgan (b. 1942 in St. Louis, Mo.)
Married on August 20, 1966 in St. Louis, Mo.
Judith Ann Pratt (b. ?)
1. Lance Matthew Morgan
2. Christy Renee Morgan
3. Kevin Matthew Morgan

  • Catherine Elizabeth Morgan (b. 1944 in St. Louis, Mo.
Married on February 1, 1964 in St. Louis, Mo.
Jack William Weston (b. ?)
1. Richard Tyler Weston
2. John Thomas Weston
3. Mark William Weston

  • James Richard Morgan (b. 1946 in St. Louis, Mo.)
Married on November 30, 1968 in St. Louis, Mo.
Barbara Louise Garegnani
1. Steven James Morgan
2. Jayne Kristen Morgan
3. Beth Suzanne Morgan

  • Christopher John Morgan (b. 1950 in St. Louis, Mo.)
Married on May 28, 1971 in Hazelwood, Mo.
Karen Sue Brunnert
1. Kelly Marie Morgan
2. Kimberly Rae Morgan
Elmer Fuller with future wife Marguerite Morgan and Floyd Thomas Morgan and
new wife Bertha Ferenbach Morgan standing in front of the Ferenbach Home.
Floyd T. Morgan and Bertha Elizabeth Ferenbach Married on June 4, 1932 in Jerseyville, Il.
Floyd and Bertha in June  1952,
he would die March 1953
Margaret Mary Morgan, looks like she could
have stared in the movie
Black Velvet
"Little Flower",   
St. Theresa of Lisieux
Ida May and Michael Curran Morgan
Katharina and Karl Albert Ferenbach
Floyd is fourth from the left.
Jim and Chris Morgan
Morgan Family June 21, 1952
Front: Pete, Chris, Jim, Frank, and Kay
Back: Bernie, Tom, Larry, father Floyd, mother Bertha, Joe, Marge and Ann
Some of my mom's memories from growing up:

"Late summer and early fall when I was 8 years old mother had a tubal pregnancy and was hospitalized.  
There were seven of us then and no one to care for us while Daddy worked.  The first two weeks we had two
different women who came into our home to care for us.  Neither wanted to stay on so we went to St. Vincent’s
Orphanage until mother was strong enough again.  I went along with Sister when she took baby Frank and
toddler Larry for walks. They missed their mother so Sister thought I was a help for them. During the day I
made stops in the nursery to play with them. Once a week we all had to eat a dish of sauerkraut. You could
not leave the table until you finished. Every week Sister would call me and ask in could help Bernadette finish
her bowl. I don't know about Berni but I can't stand the smell of sauerkraut and I sure do not eat it anymore.

Our Grandmother Ferenbach lived on a farm in Jerseyville, Illinois. I remember spending lots of fun days there
visiting her and seeing the rest of the Ferenbach clan. It was fun sometimes being allowed to collect eggs
from the chicken house, and we could pick lots of blackberries in the woods. Blackberries are still one of my
favorite fruits. The one thing we didn't like very much was using the Outhouse. We were use to inside
plumbing at home. I remember playing cow chip dodge ball with our cousins. We had a lot of fun. We did a
little milking of the cows but mostly we just watched. We also were allowed to churn the cream into butter.
Lots of fun things we couldn't do at home.

We enjoyed listening to Grandmother Ferenbach talking in the German language. We could figure out what
she was saying with Mother's help. She always had a smile and a big hug for us. There was no electric at
Grandma's house until our Dad installed it for her. I remember him doing that. Before that she used kerosene
lanterns. There was no running water in the house. We used to pump water from a well in the back yard by the
porch. Grandma used a wood burning stove to cook. She had a large vegetable garden that she worked in
everyday. She also had a large flower garden by the vegetable garden. I guess that is why our Mother had
such a green thumb. She learned from her Mother. Grandmother Ferenbach died when I was in the 7th grade
and she was buried on Christmas Eve. I will always remember that year and that Christmas. The Crib was
set up in church but there was no Baby Jesus yet in the Crib. I think of it every year on Christmas Day looking
at the crib in our church. When we returned to St. Louis that Christmas Eve poor dad was running all over
town looking for Christmas gifts and a tree. It was pretty late in the day. I was old enough to help out with the
tree and getting things together. It is being together that makes Christmas fun so with a tree decorated and
with Mother's cookies I remember it being a Special Day.

I did not visit at the farm again until my 3rd year of high school. My cousin Paul Kenny Ferenbach was killed in
a car accident on New Year's Eve. He was my age and also in the 3rd year of high school. That was a very sad
day. He was an only child and his parents pride and joy. He was a lot of fun and a favorite of mine.
Since we didn't have a car and Daddy and Mother relied on friends and relatives for rides there were just too
many of us to take out to visit relatives. So after Paul's funeral my next visit was after I had married and had
two or three children. We went to a family reunion.

Grandmother Ida Morgan, my Dad's mother, died when I was one year old, so I don't remember her at all. We
saw Grandpa Michael Morgan, my Dad's Father several times a year for short visits. He lived in East St. Louis
so without a car visiting wasn't easy. He didn't drive either. Not many memories.
I remember him being at my First Communion Party and also at my Wedding. I received a very special
wedding gift from Grandpa. It is eight - 4 pc. Place settings of silver plated flatware by Roger Bros. which
came in a wooden chest. I still have all the pieces in perfect condition and I have always used it for holidays
and birthdays and parties. He didn't have much money so I appreciate his special gift.

Daddy's sister, Edna Mae, always did such nice things for all of us. I still have the gold cross she gave me for
my First Communion and the gold locket she gave me for my 8th grade graduation. They both are engraved
with my initials and the date. At one of the family showers I had at my house I showed them to her and she
was amazed I still had them so many years later. My daughter Teri was married on the same day I made my
First Communion in May. She wore my Communion Cross on her Wedding Day.

While in grade school W orId War II was taking place. We would listen to the news of the war on the radio and
we would see clips at the movies. Daddy tried to enlist in the army. He could have made more money
because of all of the children. They paid you for each child. They didn't want him leaving all those children so
they said NO.

Daddy and his friend Howard Hoogie had a V for Victory Vegetable Garden on a vacant lot somewhere in the
city. They worked together on the garden. This was during the war. Lots of things were rationed and you were
given coupons to purchase things like meat, tires, shoes, gas. These items were needed for the troops. We
received more coupons than most because of our large family. Everyone was happy to take what we didn't
use and they were always asking if we had some to spare."
More of my mom's memories: "While I was in grade school I can remember washing lots and lots of dishes.  We
had oatmeal most mornings for breakfast.  There were many bowls and pans with oatmeal stuck to them and they
were very hard to clean.  Oatmeal really sticks to your ribs and also to the dishes like glue.  I now gag when I see
oatmeal.  I just cannot eat it anymore.  It is one of my husband Mick’s favorite cereals, but he fixes it for himself in the
microwave and he cleans his own dish.

I still like oatmeal raisin cookies, which Mother made a lot of when we were young.  Our children remember their
Grandmother for her chocolate chip cookies, but the cookies she always made for us were oatmeal raisin. There
were no chocolate chips when we were small.

Our birthdays were always celebrated with a cake, usually Angel Food, and a special dinner of the food we liked if
possible. I have no memory of gifts. I am sure they were new shoes or something we needed.

Summer Treat - When the weather was nice I think it was probably about once a month, Daddy and Mother took us
to an ice cream store named Josie's on Friday evenings. It was maybe eight blocks away. I remember banana
splits, sundaes and cones or small dishes for the little ones. It was a nice treat enjoyed by all.

I remember eating carrot and raisin sandwiches for lunch at school Mother grated the carrots and mixed with mayo
and raisins. They were really good but my friends didn't think so. I still really like carrot salad today. Mother was into
healthy eating long before everyone else.

Dad built a balance beam for us to walk on in our back yard. It was a 2 x 4 built about a foot high off the ground. We
use to walk back and forth. All ages could use it. We also had a swing set to play on.

Did you know we had a red ceiling in our kitchen on Garnier St. One day Daddy was hitting a ketchup bottle and the
ketchup suddenly popped out and hit the ceiling. We all had a good laugh. They couldn't get it cleaned off of the
white ceiling. The red kept showing through, so they painted the ceiling red.

On big shopping days Daddy went to A&P for groceries. I went along a lot of times as I got older so I could help
carry. We would walk to the store, which was by Bevo Mill, and take the bus home to Chippewa St. When I was old
enough on Gamier I went to the Colonial Bread Bakery to buy day old bread. A lot of people did that and still do. We
bought a lot of loaves and Mother did the rest of the baking. I always took someone along to help. We never traveled
alone to the store.

We also walked to Bailey Farm Dairy when I was old enough. The milk was in glass bottles and they were hard to
carry. They were very slippery and heavy. We dropped a few so we really didn't save much money. There were no
plastic or paper cartons back then. We also had a milkman deliver milk and ice to our door."
The first Christmas they were married Marge and Mick decided to give Floyd and Bertha
the statue of Our Lady of Fatima and new rosaries for each of them. "They had a statue of
Mary but I thought they should have the Rosary Mary. She later became known as the
"Miracle on Michigan". Daddy was buried with his new rosary. Mother gave the statue back
to me when she sold her home and downsized. Mary is now at our home."

The
“Miracle on Michigan,” was an event that convinced Bertha once again that God was
with her and her children. This event took place about a year after the death of our father.
Our dad died relatively suddenly, when only forty-three years of age, from an abscess that
developed within his brain.  We believe that the head wounds he received twenty years
earlier finally proved fatal. Following the loss of her husband, and with her older children
begining to move away to begin new lives on their own, Bertha realized that she was
beginning a new phase in her own life as well. She was now a single mother, and
although she had more than half a dozen children still under her care, she decided they no
longer  needed to take care of such a large home. So she placed the Michigan Avenue
house on the real estate market, and then devoted her energies to a major house
cleaning, including redoing rooms that needed fresh coats of paint. The house sold
relatively quickly, mainly because it had received such special care, but the very day after
the sale a fire broke out in the downstairs’ dining room.

No one knows who was responsible for starting the fire, whether it was caused by one of
the younger children playing with matches or one of the older children carelessly leaving a
lit cigarette on top of the wooden highboy cabinet where the fire originated. All that is
known for sure is that the fire started sometime late at night, smoldered in or on the
highboy all night long while filling the house with smoke, and eventually broke into flames
early the next morning when Bertha, alarmed by the smoke, led her children down the
stairs to the outside, had a neighbor call the fire department, and then went back into the
house and opened the door to the dining room.  According to the firemen, who arrived very
quickly to put out the fire, it was the opening of the door that caused most of the damage to
the dining room walls and ceiling. The opened door allowed an incoming supply of oxygen
to feed a fire that had merely been smoldering up until that time.

Some may have thought it was a miracle that the house did not burn down during the
night, when the children might have been trapped up on the second floor. Others may have
thought it was a miracle that the new owners still wanted to go ahead with the sale of the
house in spite of the fire and subsequent water damage to the dining room walls and
ceiling. However, neither of these good fortunes constituted what was to become known
as the legendary “Miracle on Michigan.” What many of our Catholic neighbors marveled at,
when looking at the fire damage to the house, was the statue of the Blessed Mother
located on top of the highboy cabinet. The wall behind the cabinet and the ceiling above it,
as well as the cabinet itself and everything around it, were still hot and black with soot
when the firemen left; everything, that is, except the statue of the Blessed Mother. It was as
if it were totally untouched by the fire that surrounded it.  It had no soot on it and, most
amazingly, it was very cool to the touch.  It didn’t take long before the Catholic kids in the
neighborhood were telling each other with amazement about the “Miracle on Michigan.”  
Bertha agreed with them. She believed that the Blessed Mother had protected her and her
children during this major transition in her life, just as her mother believed the Blessed
Mother had protected her during her major life transition from Germany to America.

To give the reader a better feeling for the part religion played in Bertha’s life, in addition to
her daily attendance at mass and her daily recitation of the rosary. After every evening meal
Bertha required all of her children to kneel down around the dinner table and recite the
family rosary.  Leaning on dining room chairs and squirming were all little knees could do
to get periodic relief from the hard rug-less floors. Any of our friends who happened to be
at our house at the time, including any dates that came calling on our sisters, had to kneel
down with our family for the duration of whatever decades of the rosary were left to recite.
Over the years our mother kept adding various favorite prayers to the end of the rosary, so
much so that these dreary litanies were almost as lengthy as the five decades of beads
themselves.  Like her mother before her, our mother also went from bedroom to bedroom
each night sprinkling her children with Holy Water to ward off every kind of evil.
Floyd started working early in life, having finished only the fourth grade of public
schooling. His first major job was for Western Union, in downtown St. Louis, where
he rode a bicycle to deliver messages and telegrams. Eventually he was hired by the
American District Telegraph (ADT) security company, initially as an armed responder
to security alarms (pictured here second from the left), and finally as a district
supervisor. (In 1909 Western Union and ADT had become subsidiaries of AT&T.) We
also know that his two brothers, Michael and Edward, worked as steamfitters in the
East St. Louis area.  

Most of his children have few memories of their father because he often worked on
different time shifts at American District Telegraph (ADT), and because he
sometimes held a second job that kept him away from home some evenings and
even on some Saturdays. The older kids remember how he loved to read the
newspaper, and how he used to fold it so he could read it while standing on the
crowded buses that took him to and from his job at ADT. Some of them remember
interrupting his reading of the Sunday paper to get his permission to go with their
friends to see a movie at the Michigan or Virginia theaters.  He would always say “Go
ask your Mother,” knowing full well that she just said “Go ask your Father.”  

Floyd died relatively suddenly, when only forty-three years of age, from an abscess
that developed within his brain.  We believe that the head wounds he received twenty
years earlier finally proved fatal.  When he was hospitalized with a concussion and
major head trauma when he was about twenty years of age. In the process of getting
off of a streetcar, his pants got snagged by an automobile that was trying to get
around the streetcar, but got too close and was drug for blocks.
Front: Chris, Jim, Bertha (on 80th birthday), and Frank
Back: Pete, Berni, Tom, Larry, Joe, Marge, Anna, Kay
Front: Frank, Bertha (on 75th birthday), Berni, Chris
Back: Pete, Larry, Marge, Anna, Kay, Tom, Joe, Jim
In addition to teaching her children to turn to God in time of need, she also taught them
to help each other as a family by sharing “the fruit of their bounty.”  This was
accomplished primarily by each child giving her a meaningful part of their paychecks,
once they started working, to help support the running of the household. Many of the
older siblings also volunteered to buy gifts for the younger children, especially around
the Christmas season. Our mother was not able to save very much money until after all
eleven children were making it on their own, and until after they all got together to
feather her nest by paying off the remaining mortgage on her home at 4172 Walsh
Street. Bertha was then able to leave over sixteen hundred dollars to each of her
children, close to the amount she herself had received upon the death of her mother.
Recalling how important that inheritance proved to be in her life, it was her dream to be
able to leave a similarly useful amount of money to her children upon her death. It is
quite remarkable that she was able to save that amount of money over the years,
considering the various living and health care expenses that quickly deplete the life
savings of the elderly. The very last expense she incurred, at her request, was to pay
for the meal of thanksgiving her children and grandchildren shared with each other in
her memory on the day of her funeral mass and burial.  

The legacy of Floyd and Bertha Morgan was not the money they left to their children, or
even the incredible amount of work they did to keep them housed and clothed and fed
and educated and prayerful, none of which can be directly translated into the current
financial assets of their progeny. The legacy of Floyd and Bertha Morgan are the
children who wrote a book in their honor, and the grandchildren and great
grandchildren down through the ages who will read this book and marvel at the
wonderful stories being told by their ancestors.

We can then join with Bertha and Floyd in acknowledging that we are part of a divine
mystery much greater than we can ever hope to understand. We can also join with
them as they bestow the prayer and the blessing of
“God be with you” to each of their
eleven children:   Marge (1933), Anna (1934), Tom (1935), Joe (1936), Berni (1938),
Larry (1939),  Frank (1940), Pete (1942), Kay (1944-2001), Jim (1946), and Chris
(1950).
GBWY
At the time of her death, on January 28, 1998, in her ninetieth year, she left a major
part of herself on this earth through 11 children, 38 grandchildren, 51 great
grandchildren, and one great, great grandchild.  Ten additional great grandchildren
plus a second great, great grandchild have been born since then.  
Holy Family Parish and School
St. Margaret of Scotland
St.s Mary and Joseph
Carmelites in St. Louis