Arrie Douglas Morris "Shorty" was born in 1901 in Monroe, Alabama, the son of Charles Douglas Morris and Velma Anna Wiggins. His father supported the family as a farmer, moving them to Escambia County, Florida by 1910. Sometime after completion of the 8th grade, Arrie left school and entered the workforce. By 1920, he had become a machinists helper at a local shipyard in Pensacola, the same year that he married Eunice M. Brewton in Escambia County, Alabama. But for whatever reason, he soon took up the profession of "barber" sometime before 1930. Ironically, this is one profession during the Great Depression that was actually lucrative. A barber's family never missed a meal due to lack of work. After moving about town, the young couple eventually purchased a house at 2617 West Lee Street valued at $1,000. He worked at various barber shops around town before opening his own called the "Brownville Barber Shop" (also known as the Morris Barber Shop) at 2512 West Cervantes Street. For years, this establishment was known to all of the Brownsville folks who wished a haircut, shave or shoe shine. One of his barbers who joined him prior to WWII was a young man from Dothan, Alabama by the name of William Byrd Gibson (1903-1959). He and his wife Addie Foy Roberson moved to Pensacola in 1932 where he took up his own similar journey into the barber's world. Both Byrd and Arrie would finish their professional journey together at the Brownsville Barber Shop. They shared a great working relationship to include the Morris' buying Byrd and Addie their first television set, black and white of course. They even purchased a colored plastic sheet that fit over the black and white screen to simulate color. But by 1958, Byrd became ill and passed away on July 13, 1959 and was buried in St. John's Cemetery. Eventually, Arrie became a minister at the East Gadsden Pentecostal Church prior to his own death in July 1967. Eunice would join Arrie in 1993 while Addie passed away in 2007.
William Byrd Gibson in c1925 (1903-1959)
Addie Foy Roberson Gibson 1937
Brownsville Barber Shop, 2512 West Cervantes Street in 1956
Last Barber Raymond Lamar Morris (son of Arrie D. Morris), next to last
William Byrd Gibson cutting Paul Herman Fillingim's hair (Pensacola High
School Class of 1938). Fillingim became a Frisco Railroad brakeman after
World War II and passed away in 2010 at the age of 90-years old. Raymond
Morris passed away in 1989 at the age of 62 years old.
Old plastic color sheets for black and white TV's
The illusion of color in the 1950's until color televisions became affordable