Dillie Morris Garrett (Plainview)

Dillie Morris Garrett, 99, a daughter of pioneer settlers of West Texas and New Mexico, and resident of Plainview for the past 60 years, died Monday at Prarie House Nursing Home in Plainview. She was the last survivor of the eleven children of Alexander Shakespeare Morris and Lillie Grimes Morris, a well known farm family in the Flomot community of Motley county. Her life spanned almost all the twentieth century, and oversaw the transformation from family subsistence farming to today’s electronic conveniences and modern equipment. Born near Bowie in Montague county July 15, 1906, she traveled at four months of age with her parents and five older siblings to the territory of New Mexico to homestead 160 acres of prarie grassland at Elida, near Portales. Moving back and forth from the homestead to Texas by horse drawn wagon during the required five year “proving” period, the family lived six months each year in a 4 ft. deep dugout covered with rough framing and a tarp. Two additional children were born on the homestead before the claim was “proved-up” in 1911, six months before New Mexico became the 47th state of the Union. After gaining title to the land, the family returned to Motley county and more hospitable farming conditions. After attending Flomot school, Dillie Dean Morris married Frank William Garrett on December 24, 1927, in White Flat, Texas, near Matador. The Garrett family had migrated to Motley county in 1924 by way of Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Oklahoma territory. Frank and Dillie farmed and later owned and operated a general mercantile store serving the Flomot community, before moving to Plainview in 1945, at the close of world war 2. Frank Garrett died in 1988, age 82. Dillie Garrett is survived by seven children, fifteen grandchildren, and twenty four great-grandchildren. Sons include Calvin Garrett of Hereford, Raby Garrett of Plainview, and Joe Garrett of La Quinta, California. Her daughters are Shirley Dean of Lubbock, Norma Phinny of Amarillo, Dora McBee of Plainview, and Sharon Prutzman of Possum Kingdom Lake. Services will be at 10:30 AM Thursday, October 13, at Grace United Methodist church, 10th and Garland, in Plainview. Memorial donations may be made to Vistacare Hospice, 4418 Olton Road, Plainview, 79072