Written by granddaughter Glenda Margaret Hunt Black
Margaret Lavinia Morris was born March 2, 1868 in Austin, Texas, the fourth child and daughter of Algernon Richard Morris and Almeda Caroline Burditt. Her siblings were Mary E Morris; Will J Morris Travis County Sheriff at one time; AR Morris Jr; Cornelia Hamilton Morris and Annie Bell Morris who married Malcolm Hornsby.
Margaret Lavinia Morris attended Burditt School on Ferguson Lane (later Sprinkle School replaced it). The family moved into town since she had sinus problems and she attended Pease School, the first school in Austin originally called West Austin School. She attended Stuart Female Academy (later Presbyterian Seminary) along with her sister-in-law, Carrie Nevil (Mrs. Will J Morris). In a newspaper interview, she mentions the family lived across from the school and then on East Avenue. They built a new home at 1705 1st Street. They moved to 408 East 2nd (under moonlight tower light—where the new Convention Center is, on the corner of Neches and 2nd).
At age 19, on December 20, 1887, she married Camp Collins Harn, (December 8, 1866 Navasota-September 8, 1912 Austin) son of Dr. Allen Duval Harn and Josephine Camp. Camp Harn was a Conductor on the H. T. and C. Railway. He owned a Mexican restaurant at 406 Congress so his sister could run it.
In 1912, at age 47, Camp died of a heart attack and Margaret became a widow with four children. She turned the home at 408 East 2nd Street into a boarding house with upstairs bedrooms—Miss Josephine Casey said she and her parents boarded there and also many baseball players in town for the season. One mother of a player who became ill while boarding with Mrs. Harn, wrote a lovely note thanking her for caring for her son during his illness.
In the 1950’s Maggie sold the house to an electric company and it is now the location of the Austin Civic Center. Margaret and Lucille moved to East 43rd Street next to the Hancock golf course back nine holes until the Sears shopping center was built. The glare from the bright Texas sun bothered her eyes with cataracts. She bought the shady home at 4201 Avenue G in Hyde Park where she, her sister Nenie (Cornelia Hamilton Morris McCord Alford) and daughter Lucille Margaret lived together until their deaths. They were our own original Golden Girls!
Margaret (Maggie or Mamo) lived to be 102 and was charming. She enjoyed exceptionally good health all of her 102 years needing only the local firemen to help get her up when she slipped and sat down on the floor. She was interviewed by the newspaper and Austin Maroon at 100 and received a card from President Nixon. We gave her a color tv for her 100th birthday and she loved “Gunsmoke,” other westerns, and daytime soap operas. Her daughter, Lucille (Cele) cracked the pecans we kids picked up in their yard and Mamo picked out pecans to sell to the Mexican restaurants in town for pralines. Their home had bountiful pecan trees that supplied the nuts. And more interviews at 101. When asked if she had any reason for her long life, she stated it was her close proximity to God through prayer that had kept her going all these years.
She died March 24, 1970 at age 102.
Oakwood Cemetery, Section 3-547