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MORRIS LEE WILLIAMS, SR.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n BY GWEN HAYES<\/strong><\/p>\n Sentinel Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A longtime educator, who was also very popular with his fraternity, passed away last Saturday, April 27, 2024. Born and raised in Port Tampa City, Morris Lee Williams, Sr.<\/strong> was 88 years old. His twin sister, Dr. Doris Williams Campbell,<\/strong> preceded him in death by 8 years.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Williams\u2019<\/strong> son, Myron,<\/strong> spent several hours interviewing his dad, gathering a wealth of information. Some of it is shared here.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The twins\u2019 elementary school years were spent at Frederick Douglass Grade School. Following in the footsteps of older siblings, the twins went on to G. W. Carver Jr. High School, where they were at the top of the class, with the highest GPA, and awarded valedictorian and salutatorian honors.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>It was on to high school (10th<\/sup> grade) at George S. Middleton High School in the Tampa neighborhood of Belmont Heights. Students from Port Tampa City were bused to G. S. Middleton High School.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Morris Williams<\/strong> played guard on the football team playing offense and defense. Williams<\/strong> graduated from Middleton in 1953 with honors.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the fall of 1953, Morris <\/strong>and Doris<\/strong> headed to Atlanta, Georgia to attend college. Doris<\/strong> attending Clark College and Morris<\/strong>attending Morehouse College. Their older sister, Marjorie <\/strong>and older brother, Kelly<\/strong> attended Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Williams <\/strong>transferred from Morehouse College to Florida A&M University for the 1954-55 school term. \u00a0At FAMU he majored in Biology, minored in Chemistry. He also joined the ROTC Program.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 While attending FAMU, he pledged Omega Psi Phi Fraternity – Upsilon Psi Chapter, completing the process in 1955. He has been an active member of Omega for nearly 70 years. He has held all offices of the fraternity and has headed most committees. He has received many awards and honors from the fraternity, becoming a Life Member.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Williams<\/strong> graduated from FAMU in 1957, married Ernestine White<\/strong> of Winter Haven, Florida and began teaching at Ochlocknee Colored School in Ochlocknee, Georgia. His union with Ernestine White<\/strong> lasted some 25 years and produced four children: Morris, Jr., Myron, Gina, <\/strong>and Marcus<\/strong>. After one year, his teaching career continued at Magnolia Colored High School, before he transferred to Middleton High School in 1960.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At Middleton, he taught Biology, Chemistry and Physiology. When schools began to integrate in 1962, he transferred to East Bay High School in Gibsonton, Florida. During this time, the integration of schools was not off to the best start. So Hillsborough County Schools recruited Black educators to become Human Relations Specialists.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 During the civil rights era, he and other students were involved in the downtown lunch counter sit-ins, etc.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Also while working at East Bay High School as a Human Relations Specialist, he began to pursue his Masters of High School and Administration Degree at the University of South Florida. After completing his master\u2019s degree in the mid-seventies, he was transferred to Horace Mann Jr. High School as Dean of Students, Assistant Principal of Administration and Assistant Principal of Curriculum. He spent the last 3 years of his 40-year career serving as Assistant Principal of Franklin Jr. High School, Tampa. He also taught in the Night School Program for Adult learners at Middleton High School for 25 years.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 His years of hard, dedicated work also led him in another direction.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In 1982 he married Christine Dillard Beasley<\/strong> of Greenville, South Carolina. Christine<\/strong> had two daughters, Audra<\/strong> and Stephanie,<\/strong> who immediately began calling him \u2018Pops.\u2019<\/strong> They have been married for 36 years.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The unions produced 6 successful children as well as grandchildren and great grandchildren.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 His childhood church was Mount Zion AME Church, Port Tampa City, Florida. He later worshiped at a Methodist Church in Thomasville, Georgia, St. James AME Church (Progress Village), and Harris Temple United Methodist Church, in Progress Village. Williams <\/strong>and his wife, Christine<\/strong> became faithful members of Keeney Chapel which was located in Clair Mel City.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Funeral services for Williams<\/strong> are Saturday, May 4, 2024, 10 a.\u00a0 m. at New Hope Church, 213 N. Knight Ave., Brandon 33510. (See Funeral Notice for additional information)<\/p>\n \n \n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MORRIS LEE WILLIAMS, SR. \u00a0 BY GWEN HAYES Sentinel Editor \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A longtime educator, who was also very popular with his fraternity, passed away last Saturday, April 27, 2024. Born and raised in Port Tampa City, Morris Lee Williams, Sr. was 88 years old. His twin sister, Dr. Doris Williams Campbell, preceded him in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88889,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/88889"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=133650"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133652,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133650\/revisions\/133652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=133650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=133650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=133650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}