The Childhood of Dorothy Morris

Dorothy Amelia Morris was born on 16 February 1923 at the Royal Hospital for Women, Paddington, New South Wales. She was the second child of Frederick George Morris and Dorothy May Clingan, her older brother Alfred was born 18 months earlier. Her younger siblings Frederick (John) was born in 1924 and Stella in 1928.

She attended schools in the Newtown and surrounding suburbs of Sydney.

Early adult years

After leaving school Dorothy encountered the final years of the 1930s Great Depression with its huge unemployment problems. She worked in local woolen mills as well as domestic duties. She was 16 when World War 2 broke out. In 1942 Dorothy and her partner Stanley Hall had one child, Ron.

Married Life

She met Ronald Grant Fitzpatrick who lived at Enmore. He was to become her husband and they were married at the District Registrar’s Office, Randwick in 1946. They had one child, Pamela.

During the 1940s the family encountered financial and other difficulties causing the children to be raised by their respective grandmothers during their early development years. Later as the kids grew up Dorothy focused on her family while at the same time her marriage disintegrated.

Retirement

Dorothy never had the chance to retire. She suffered from long term chronic hypertension and died suddenly in 1966 at the early age of 43 from an acute cerebrovascular accident (stroke).

Extracted from: FTM by Ron Morris.