Maurice Longfellow Harness (born April 24, 1906 in Jamestown, Ohio) married Betty Emma Allen (born December 19, 1913 in Arkansas). They were married April 18, 1934 in Heber Springs, Arkansas. He passed away at the age of 96 on September 21, 2002.

Morris Harness at 6 months

Maurice Harness was was born prematurely, and they kept him in a drawer taken out of a chest of drawers. They opened up a wood stove's front lid and kept him there until he got older and warmer weather arrived. He moved to Heber Springs, Arkansas, with his parents and siblings, in 1913 or 1914. (He preferred the spelling of his first name as Morris and used that spelling the rest of his life.) (see Roscoe Harness notes for more details of life with Morris' parents)

Morris as a High School Football Player

While in high school, Morris Harness worked part-time in the portable saw mills that his dad and grandfather owned. This would have been in the mid 1920's. After Morris graduated from Heber Springs high school, the depression was in its early stages and Morris went to St. Louis to find a job. He worked at the Chevrolet motor assembly plant there for about 6 months, also working part-time at the nearby Fisher Body plant. He became homesick and returned to Heber Springs.

Morris Harness at 16

He worked at a rock quarry for awhile, and then went to work for the Bruner Handle Company in Heber. The company turned timber into handles for axes, hammers, etc, and had national customers, such as Sears. Bruner had a saw mill in northern Arkansas, near St. Joe where they cut hickory trees. Morris worked there for several years.

He returned to Heber Springs, still in the employ of Bruner.

By this time the depression was at its worst, and Morris went to Detroit to look for work. He finally found it at Fisher Body where he worked for a short time, and returned to Heber where he again found employment at the Bruner firm.

Young Betty Allen

In 1931 or 1932, Morris was offered a job at the Heber Springs post office. He worked there for about a year and a half. The post master encouraged him to go over to a local restaurant (Aunt Fannies) and make the acquaintance of a young waitress named Betty Allen. He did so and they started seeing each other seriously.

He lost his job at the Heber Springs post office, and in about 1933 went to Chicago to find work. He worked for the Ingersoll Wheel and Disc Company, a steel company. After about a year there, he returned to Heber on vacation and married Betty Allen. They went back to Chicago where he continued to work for the Ingersoll company.

Mr. and Mrs. Morris Harness lived in Chicago until the spring of 1936. In 1935, their first son, Charles, was born. Morris had taken a civil service exam (civil service was just getting underway) and got a call from the federal government offering him a job in Washington, DC, working for the newly established Veterans Administration. They were just beginning to give out payments to World War I veterans. He took his family to the nation's capital where he worked for 5 or 6 months.

The Harness' didn't like Washington, so they returned to Chicago where Morris took a job again with the Ingersoll firm, although this time as a part of the office staff. About two months into that job, Morris got a call to come to work for the new Social Security Administration at their just established headquarters office in downtown Baltimore, Maryland. The job paid about $105 a month. The Harness' lived in one of the famous row house apartments near downtown Baltimore. Morris started as a file clerk, sorting Social Security numbers (by hand) that had just been issued to working Americans. He later got a job in the Certification Unit.

Over the next few years, Morris took his family to Little Rock, Arkansas...Oklahoma City...and back to Washington...working for the Social Security Administration. He returned to the Baltimore headquarters office in 1939. The depression was over and the early stages of World War II were underway at the time. This time, the Harness' lived in a garden apartment project in the suburban community of Dundalk. They lived at that location until 1946. Their second son, Tom, was born in Baltimore in 1945.

In 1946, Morris Harness was transferred to the new Kansas City regional office of the Social Security Administration. The Harness' lived in an apartment near downtown Kansas City, Missouri. Morris worked at first in the Benefit Control area. later was supervisor of files, and finally Fiscal Controller for the regional office which served a number of midwestern states. Morris' job was to handle fiscal control balance between the regional office and the Treasury Department, which actually dispensed the funds for Social Security recipients. Morris was the certifying officer, so for a number of years he had to personally sign all claims made out of the Kansas City office for Social Security recipients in a number of midwestern states.

In the early 50's the Harness' moved to an old house in the northeast section of Kansas City, and later to another house in the same general part of town. By that time the Harness' had a daughter, Peggy, who was born in Kansas City, Missouri.

Morris Harness at Work

In 1959, the Harness' purchased a new house in Independence, Missouri where they lived until 1969 when they moved into a house several blocks away.

Morris took early retirement in November,1969. His wife, Betty, entered a nursing home in September, 2000. Mr. Harness still lived at the family residence in Independence until a few months before his death on September 21, 2002. He was 96 years young..

Morris and Betty Harness

Morris and Betty Harness had 4 children.

Charles Ray Harness (born April 3, 1935 in Chicago, Illinois). Charles spent about half of his working career in radio-TV news broadcasting in Iowa, Kansas and Ohio, and the other half in public relations in the corporate and non-profit organization sectors. He spent most of his career in Sioux City and Des Moines, Iowa and retired in 1998 to Lee's Summit, Mo, a Kansas City area suburb.

Thomas Allen Harness (born October 19, 1945 in Baltimore, Maryland). He married Janet Sokoloff. The couple and their two children live in Olathe, Kansas, a Kansas City suburb. Tom is a technical writer and his wife Jan, a former radio newscaster in Kansas City, is the creative director of a public relations firm.

Infant Harness (died shortly after birth on July 9, 1949)

Peggy Lee Harness (born December 29, 1950 in Kansas City, Missouri). She and Thomas Richard Peer had a child, Amanda Joy, born January 11, 1972. Peggy married Roy Majors, but they were later divorced. Peggy worked for the Social Security Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration in Kansas City before becoming disabled and unable to work full-time. She lives in Belton, Missouri, a Kansas City area suburb.