Carol Ann Laverne Morris – Beauty, Brains, Brawn, and Breathtaking – Iowa’s National Treasure - Miss Universe!

Miss Universe – The Pride of Iowa

So, Ottumwa, Iowa is not exactly a household name to most people and were it not for Radar O’Reilly on Mash, whose fictional hometown was Ottumwa, Iowa, or Tom Arnold who married Roseanne Barr for a time and starred in movies like True Lies with Arnold Schwarzenegger, one might not know it exists.

Could you ever imagine this small town in Southeastern Iowa was also the home of someone who earned the title of the most beautiful woman in the world?

I know, it is truly a stretch but truth often involves some rather strange situations.  This is one.

You see, once upon a time back in the Golden Age of the 1950’s for a brief moment of time Ottumwa could brag about being home to the most beautiful woman in the world.

Not only was she beautiful but smart, athletic, played violin, sang in the choir, and was a preacher’s daughter.

Let me introduce you to Carol Ann Laverne Morris, perhaps the most famous person to ever grow up in Ottumwa, Iowa.

    

Born April 8, 1936, in Omaha, Nebraska Carol Morris lived for a time in Scott City, Kansas before moving to Ottumwa, Iowa where she spent most of her early life and attended Ottumwa High School.

The only child of Minister Laverne Morris and his wife, Carol became a lifeguard at the public swimming pool, taught swimming, and was an exceptional swim team member.

She was also smart, for in high school Carol finished 4^th in her class of 300 students.  At the same time Carol was a violin virtuoso and a member of the church choir.

Attending college at Drake University in Des Moines where she studied elementary education, she became a swimming star and in 1954 she broke the national junior Olympics backstroke record.

This intellectual, athletic, musically inspired and beautiful young woman was invited to join the prestigious Kappa Alpha Theta international sorority, the oldest Greek sorority in America for women.

Also during three years at Drake she played viola with the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra.

That was when Carol developed into a stunning 5-foot 7-inch beauty weighing 131 pounds with blue eyes and nearly dark brown hair.

Perhaps she was destined to be a beauty queen when, during high school, she won the Miss Ottumwa competition.  She was sponsored by the South Ottumwa Boosters Club.

While at Drake University she entered and won the Miss Iowa beauty pageant of 1954 and in 1955 represented Iowa in the Miss America competition.  In the talent portion she played the song Stardust on her violin.

The next year, 1956, she represented Iowa in the Miss USA beauty pageant which she won in Long Beach, California.

Her final competition was the 1956 Miss Universe contest where she beat out 83 worldwide competitors to become only the second American and the first Iowan to win the international honor.

In fact, no other Iowan has ever won the Miss USA or Miss Universe competitions.

Miss Universe Competition

During her year reigning as Miss Universe she toured with Bob Hope and got to meet Presidents Harry Truman and Herbert Hoover.

Miss Universe 1956 Carol Morris, was a Guest on 'What's My Line' Show (Aired August 5, 1956).  Carol also was “mystery” guest on two of the most popular game shows of the 1950’s What’s My Line and To Tell the Truth (Aired April 23, 1957).  She was on the same What’s My Line episode as Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago.

She did manage to return home during the year to Ottumwa where over 2,000 people made the 12-mile trip to greet her at the airport while thousands swarmed the parade downtown including me, to see the stunning beauty and her four-foot tall Miss Universe trophy. 

Joining the festivities was Iowa Governor Leo Hoegh.

One of the prizes from the competition was an acting contract for a year at Universal Studios after her year as Queen and she co-starred with actor Jeff Chandler in her debut movie, Crazy Love.

A movie and television career followed and she acted in many productions such as the movie Born to be Loved and a TV episode of Ozzie and Harriet but performed in her last movie, Paradise Valley, released in 1962.

In June of 1959 at age 23 Carol married a 45-year old Texas oil tycoon from Houston, Ed “Buzz” Burke.  In April 1960 they had their first child, a boy, and then two more children.

Her husband died and Carol remarried and had one further child.

In 2007 she resurfaced in the Hollywood scene as Executive Producer of the motion picture The Cake Eaters, with Mary Stuart Masterson producing and directing and Kristen Stewart, Elizabeth Ashley, and Bruce Dern starring.

According to friends, Carol still lives in Texas and is doing well, happy, and content with life.  From an old Ottumwa friend and classmate I got the following update on Carol.

"Carol lives in Houston, Texas and is as lovely and sweet as ever.  Carol is very family oriented and does not live in the past that much. She never attends any of her OHS class reunions either!  She loves her life in Texas, but does respond to her Ottumwa friends when notified!"

CPT Spirits in the Sky - Marilyn Monroe - June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962 - A Tribute and a Challenge - "a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love."

Marilyn Monroe born Norma Jeane Mortenson
June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962

It has been 93 years since the most beautiful woman in the world was born, and 57 years since her life was cut short at much to early an age, just 36 years old.  Today she remains nearly as popular as when she was in her prime, and in nations like China she remains the number one Hollywood icon. She was a breath of fresh air in a time the world needed to recover from World War II.

Candle in the Wind

Goodbye Norma Jean

Goodbye Norma Jean

Though I never knew you at all

You had the grace to hold yourself

While those around you crawled

They crawled out of the woodwork

And they whispered into your brain

They set you on the treadmill

And they made you change your name

chorus:

And it seems to me you lived your life

Like a candle in the wind

Never knowing who to cling to

When the rain set in

And I would have liked to have known you

But I was just a kid

Your candle burned out long before

Your legend ever did

Loneliness was tough

The toughest role you ever played

Hollywood created a superstar

And pain was the price you paid

Even when you died

Oh, the press still hounded you

All the papers had to say

Was that Marilyn was found in the nude

Goodbye Norma Jean

Though I never knew you at all

You had the grace to hold yourself

While those around you crawled

Goodbye Norma Jean

From the young man in the 22nd row

Who sees you as something more than sexual

More than just our Marilyn Monroe

(repeat chorus)

Music: Elton JohnLyrics: Bernie TaupinPiano and Vocals: Elton John

 

Who done it?  You Solve the Mysterious murder of Marilyn Monroe

You help solve the mystery of who killed the most famous Hollywood icon of the 20th Century.  When the world awakened on August 5, 1962, the most celebrated actress in Hollywood, Marilyn Monroe, was found dead in her home in California at the young age of 36.

It was the end of a tumultuous and meteoric rise from rags to riches for America's sweetheart and Hollywood icon whose name crossed paths with the rich, the powerful, the revered and the most sinister characters in the world.

The medical examiner quickly concluded she died of an overdose of prescription medicine but forensic evidence was insufficient to declare it a suicide so her death was labeled as "probable suicide".

The mishandling of the crime scene, the manipulation of evidence, the inconsistency or her actions prior to the death and the onslaught of media hype pushing the suicide theory by powerful forces triggered a firestorm of suspicion and doubt.

But a series of national and international events the next 15 months would bury her story in the avalanche of media coverage of the Cold War with the Soviets, the Kennedy administration war with the La Casa Nostra, the evolving Vietnam war and the Kennedy assassination.

  

For the past 56 years the American public has been brainwashed with stories of the addictions and depression of film legend Marilyn Monroe that led to her death by suicide.  She has been pictured as an insecure and fragile girl whose mother was sent to an insane asylum as Marilyn was bounced from foster home to foster home to orphanage.

In fact, according to Marilyn she was sent to ten total places, foster homes and the orphanage, before she married a merchant marine when she turned 16 to avoid being sent back to the orphanage.  Because of her shuffling between homes she attended 6 different elementary schools in seven years.

But the vast majority of her experiences were good, she got along well with other children and often created games for her friends to play.  It was during this period she developed her desire to be a star and began to create the persona she believed she needed to be successful.

Her first marriage lasted about 4 years, 1942-1946, although her husband was  away during most of World War II.  She was working in an armament factory toward the end of the war when she was discovered at an assembly line by a photographer searching for the next pin up queen for the soldiers.

By 1946 Norma Jean first began using the name Marilyn Monroe when her popularity as a pin up queen got the notice of movie studios.  Marilyn had already begun singing and dancing lessons and had developed exceptional fitness and diet routines on her own, routines that would result in her being known as the most beautiful woman in the world.

At first it was her voice that got recognized although she did not get along with the movie tyrant Darryl Zanuck, head of 20th Century Fox, her studio most of her short career.  Many of her early film roles were uncredited, even when performing songs, a way the studio could avoid paying performance fees to actors.

Marilyn seemed to know what was expected of Hollywood stars in the golden age of film and she gave the studio what it wanted.  She quickly grew from a $125.00 a week extra to singing and then acting roles as she became more popular but as did most studios at the time, she was treated as a commodity.

In 1952 and 1953 her film roles pushed her to the top of the list in popularity but her studio handlers still insisted she play the dumb blond in comedies and though her films made more money than those of Elizabeth Taylor, Monroe was paid $100,000 per film compared to Taylor at $1 million per film.

From this point on the supposedly dumb blond pulled turned the movie industry upside down and eventually would force the studios to give her challenging dramatic roles like she wanted along with a salary equal to Elizabeth Taylor.

While she would be known as Marilyn Monroe from the late 1940's on she did not have her name legally changed from Norma Jean Mortensen to Marilyn Monroe until 1956.

As for the mystery of her death, by 1953 she was already acquainted with several people on the list of suspects or collaborators whose connections to others on the list in the immediate future would result in her becoming a serious threat to their careers and would endanger her life.

Probable Suspects, Collaborators and Contributors

Frank Costello, Joseph Kennedy partner and New York mobster

Sam Giancana, Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles mob boss

Joseph Kennedy, patriarch of Kennedy family

John F. Kennedy, former president
Jackie Kennedy, wife to JFK

Robert Kennedy, former attorney general

Peter Lawford, Kennedy in law

Arthur Miller, former husband to Marilyn

Santo Trafficante, Jr., Florida mob boss

Ralph Greenson, Marilyn psychiatrist

Eunice Murray, Marilyn housekeeper

Can you guess who did it and why???.