OC native Verd Morrison marks 99th birthday Feb. 16
Ozark County native Winsor “Verd” Morrison will mark his birthday Feb. 16, celebrating 99 years of lifetime adventures that began in the tiny community of Zanoni, where his parents, A. P. “Doc” and Alpha Bet Morrison operated the general store, post office and water-powered mill. Verd, next to youngest of their 13 children, is the only one still living.
His Ozark County education began in the old one-room 88 and Bushong Schools and included a year or so of high school in Dora. In December 1942, he married Byrdella Martin of Dora, “when we were almost 18,” Verd said in a Times interview several years ago.
They worked for a relative operating an ice cream shop in Arizona until Verd enlisted in the Army Air Corps and served as a bombardier on B-24 bombers at the tail-end of World War II. After the war, Verd and Byrdella operated Cinderella Confectionery in West Plains from 1946 to 1951 before Verd decided to use the GI Bill to earn a degree from the University of Missouri in Columbia. He started medical school at Mizzou but finished his medical degree at the University of Tennessee in Memphis in 1957.
The Morrisons moved to Seattle, where Verd began his medical career with the U.S. Public Health Service. Later, the job took them to Alaska, where, on Jan. 3, 1959, he delivered the first baby to be born after Alaska officially became the country’s 49th state.
Next, they moved to Staten Island, New York, where Verd began his training in otolaryngology (ear, nose, throat). Afterward, they lived in St. Louis, where he completed his training in otolaryngology at Washington University - Barnes Hospital. After that, Verd practiced medicine and also served on the faculty of medical schools in Seattle, Memphis and Jackson, Mississippi.
Brydella, a homemaker and mother to the Morrisons’ three children, worked as a secretary and then became a nurse. In Jackson, she managed Verd’s private medical practice while he also served as a professor at the University of Mississippi Medical School.
In 1993, the Morrisons retired and moved to the Branson area, but after Verd made himself available for part-time work, he accepted a two-month assignment in North Dakota. They ended up staying and working there for six years before they retired again to the Branson area.
Byrdella died of chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 2003.
The Morrisons raised three children: a daughter, Katherine (now Meeker-Cohen), who is retired after working with an architectural firm in New Jersey, and two sons, Tom Morrison and Michael Morrison. Both Tom and Michael became physicians. Sadly, Tom died in 2022.
Last fall, Verd downsized and moved from his longtime home in Hollister to a retirement facility in Oxford, Mississippi, where his son Michael also lives with his wife, Missy.
Birthday greetings may be mailed to Verd (who goes by Winsor Morrison in his new home) at 2702 S. Lamar Blvd., Apt. 214, Oxford, MS 38655.