Wayne Morse - Life Before Politics

Life Before Politics

Morse was born on October 20, 1900, in the Madison, Wisconsin, home of his maternal grandparents, Myron and Flora White. Morse's parents, Wayne Lyman Morse and Jessie Elnora Morse, farmed a 320-acre (130 ha) plot near Verona, a small community 11 miles (18 km) west-southwest of Madison. Morse grew up on this farm, where the family raised Devon cattle for beef, Percheron and Hackney horses, dairy cows, hogs, sheep, poultry, and feed crops for the animals. The family eventually included five children: Mabel, seven years older than Morse; twin brothers Harry and Grant, four years older; Morse; and Caryl, fourteen years younger.

Encouraged by Jessie, the Morse family held relatively formal nightly discussions about crops, animals, education, religion, and most frequently about politics. Like many of their neighbors, the family was Progressive and discussed ideas championed by Robert M. La Follette, Sr., a leader of the Progressive movement who served as Wisconsin's governor from 1900 to 1906 and thereafter as a member of the U.S. Senate. During these family discussions, Morse developed debating skills and strong opinions about political corruption, corporate domination, labor rights, women's suffrage, education, and, on a personal level, hard work and sobriety.

Morse and his siblings began their education in a one-room school near Verona. However, the Morse parents, particularly Jessie, shared the Progressive belief that improvement of self and society came through good education, and they admired the schools in Madison. After Morse finished second grade, his parents enrolled him in Longfellow School in Madison, to which Morse commuted 22 miles (35 km) round-trip daily by riding relay on three of the family's smaller horses. After eighth grade, Morse attended Madison High School, where he became class president and debating club president, and placed academically among the top 10 in his graduating class. In high school, he developed his relationship with Mildred "Midge" Downie, whom he had known since third grade, and who was class valedictorian and class vice-president the same year Morse was president.

Morse received his bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1923 and his master's, in speech, from the same college the next year. He married Downie in the same year. He taught speech at the University of Minnesota Law School, and earned a law degree there in 1928. He held a reserve commission as second lieutenant, Field Artillery, United States Army, from 1923 to 1929. He was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.

Morse became an assistant professor of law at the University of Oregon School of Law in 1929. Within nine months, he became an associate professor and then dean of the law school. At age 31, this made him the youngest dean of any law school accredited by the American Bar Association. He became full professor of law in 1931. He completed his doctorate in law at Columbia Law School in 1932. He served on many public commissions over the following years, including a Roosevelt appointment to settle labor disputes that threatened to halt production of Navy ships during World War II.