After spending 13 years as a police reporter at The Atlanta Journal, Aubrey Morris got his wish – to work in radio – when Elmo Ellis hired him in 1957 to help start the first full-fledged radio news department in Atlanta. Aubrey is best known as being the only news reporter to accompany Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen to Paris to cover the disastrous Orly Airport crash on Sunday morning, June 2, 1962. Aubrey was at church when WSB Newsman King Elliott reached him, and immediately helped lead coverage of the event that claimed the lives of over 100 prominent Atlantans. Aubrey says that although he interviewed all Presidents from Truman forward through Reagan, he is the only reporter to do a taped interview with a President – Jimmy Carter – as the President sat in a toilet booth at White Columns on Peachtree collecting his thoughts for a live hookup with ABC News “Good Morning America” Show, on WSB-TV, at 7 a.m. Morris remembers he barely managed to get back up-stairs and get the exclusive scoop on WSB Radio at 7 a.m., ahead of Channel 2 News. A native of Roswell, he is active in the Roswell Historical Society, and writes a column for the weekly Alpharetta/Roswell Review and News. He and wife, Tera, a nurse whom he met on the Journal police beat, have 3 daughters and six grandchildren, the two oldest being seniors in college. The latest update (2004): Considering the world his beat, Aubrey spent his summer two years back as a student of Tudor History at Clare College, Cambridge University.
In 1987, The Atlanta Journal Constitution wrote an article on Aubrey as he retired from White Columns:
His retirement last week leaves the airwaves in town to the round and resonant voices. Morris' was the rasp that scratched across the dial, but never left an untoward mark.
In a business marked by change, Morris never became the white-collar migrant worker of broadcast lore. Outside two brief stints in government, all his paychecks have come from Cox Communications.
He joined The Journal at 21, immediately after his graduation from the University of Georgia in 1945. Early on he worked a 24-hour shift covering what remains the nation's worst hotel fire, the blaze at the Winecoff.
In 1957 he joined WSB and his distinctive voice brought life to the news and fame to him. He was WSB's news director almost forever.
The last five years he has been public affairs director and editorial writer. Morris has had the luxury of beginning each day by checking the wires and cop shops to see if one story caught his trained eye.
It isn't a cliche to say of Morris that he has met every president from Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan and could hail one of those presidents by shouting "He y, Jimmy." (The reply, of course, was "Hi, Aubrey.")
Morris stories are legion. Kings and emperors play well.
In search of an interview with the late Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, Morris stealthily staked out his limousine.
The Lion of Judah consented to the interview and Morris beamed. There was, however, the little matter of the start button on the tape recorder. The interview happened, but not on WSB.
Morris once staked out former King Leopold of Belgium on the golf course at East Lake Country Club. His form of address was peculiar to American democracy.
"Hey King," he said, "how was your score?"
Early one morning Morris' problems with icy streets and a chance meeting with police captain in similar straits led him to shut down the city by his morning-drive warnings.
He had the singular distinction that day of broadcasting live from his car an impending accident. A car sliding out of a driveway was about to hit the WSB news car. The audience heard the crunch - and so did the motorist locked up by the ice.
As Atlanta fates would have it, of course, after the breakfast hour the sun shined sweetly and the streets were clear. But thanks to Morris, Atlanta was on holiday.
Those are the backroom stories. Morris will be better remembered as a pioneer in broadcast news.
He bore the horrid duty of reading to the city the deaths in the 1962 Orly plane crash of 101 Atlantan on an art tour. He flew to Paris with Mayor Ivan Allen to handle the grim details.
Generations of young reporters learned their craft from the veteran. (Pictured left is Aubrey during 1966 election coverage with Dave Kirschner - click to enlarge the photo) They learned of enterprise and integrity and they learned to take the news seriously, but not themselves.
Pictured left, Aubrey again in 1966 with a group of young reporters during election coverage.
Pictured are Jane Bracewell, Aubrey Morris, Dave Kirschner, Claude Freeman, Craig Crissman Pictures from the Dave Kirschner Collection
He has been so quiet about his retirement that it has come as a surprise to many. Tonight, he will have to discuss it. If he dares become tongue-tied, someone will remind him of one of his own techniques.
A politician was evading a Morris interview.
"I have nothing to say," said the politician emphatically.
Morris didn't pause.
"Well if you did have something to say," he asked, "what would you say?" If the question is put to Aubrey Morris, the answer could come in volumes.
A great picture to the left. Click picture to enlarge as Aubrey Morris and Elmo Ellis smile as WSB alumni cheer them for their contributions and leadership. Aubrey applauds as former employees who worked for Elmo Ellis applaud his remarks to the group. The wide smiles tell the whole story of the May 2004 reunion at Manuel's Tavern.
Selections from some of Aubrey Morris's favorite interviews. Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia: "The Lion of Judah came to Atlanta with a phalanx of newsmen to lay a wreath at Martin Luther King's tomb. I was pushed so near the Eternal Flame, I could feel the heat on my rear end. To heck with that. I withdrew to his limousine, which turned out OK because he didn't say a word at the ceremony. He came back to his car, granted me an exclusive interview and left. The other reporters started shouting, `What did he say? What did he say?' So I told 'em. The n I went to feed my interview back to WSB. I discovered I had forgotten to turn on my tape recorder."
Richard Nixon: "Nixon came to Atlanta campaigning against John F. Kennedy in 1960. Mayor Hartsfield was a yellow dog Democrat, but he welcomed Nixon warmly as the first Republican candidate to visit here in years. That wily old fox knew that being seen with a presidential contender would get nationwide publicity. Just to make sure, he gave Nixon a spread of Confederate dollars, and that's the picture that made the front pages."
Jimmy Carter: "I'd been covering him so long, I slipped up after he became president. A bunch of reporters were jockeying to get his attention and I just blurted out, `Hey, Jimmy!' He stopped and said, `Hey, Aubrey,' and answered my question.
Harry Truman: "I asked him how it felt to be an ex-president, and he snapped, `Son, I'm not an ex-anything. I'm a former president.' Now I know how he felt. I'm not an ex-newsman, either."
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