A lifetime of creative activity led to Lee Morris’s book "Marshmellow Little Cloud Discovers an Island."
"I always see people’s faces in cloud, and there was a little girl cloud looking down at me," Morris, 74, begins, as she describes how her first foray into the world of children’s literature started out.
The little-girl cloud is named Marshmellow — "mellow" rather than the usual spelling of "mallow" — because she’s mellow. Marshmellow is accompanied by Gregory Gray Cloud, her younger sibling. The two start out the day in Coral Bay, traveling westward over the petroglyphs and on toward Cruz Bay. In Cruz Bay, the July 4th Celebration parade is underway. When the fireworks go off, a spark ignites a barn. Marshmellow and Gregory Gray Cloud come to the rescue.
Gregory Gray Cloud sheds plenty of tears, putting the fire out and getting applause from the crowd below. The sun comes out, a rainbow splashes across the sky and Marshmellow wonders where they’ll be next.
"England," Morris says.
She plans a series of similar books set in various locations.
"Marshmellow Little Cloud Discovers an Island" was illustrated by St. John artist Lucy Portlock.
A St. John resident since 1994, Morris and her late husband, Bill Morris, fell in love with the area on a sailing vacation. They broke ground for their house in Contant just before Hurricane Marilyn hit in 1995, slowing down the process considerably. However, because communication was also at a standstill, Morris learned to be a ham-radio operator, a skill she maintains on a daily basis by participating in the morning weather report.
Born in Rhode Island, Morris and her husband met while both were students at the University of Rhode Island. The two got married in 1955 and headed out to Germany while her husband began his U.S. Army career. Their first child, Christopher, was born while they lived in Germany.
They returned to the states, where her husband got an engineering job with McDonnell Douglas. The company sent him to England, and after returning to a job with Hughes Aircraft, the couple served several stints in England, where their other two children, Janet and Steven, were born. Janet later died at age 17 from cancer.
Finally, they settled in California. Morris, who was already accomplished in music, quilting and other artistic endeavors, got a job as a secretary at Hughes Aircraft. She worked there until she and her husband moved to St. John.
While their house was under construction, she worked at Today’s Flowers, in shops, at secretarial jobs here and there, and eventually as a secretary at Islandia Real Estate. She still holds that job.
Meanwhile, breast cancer in 1999 laid her low for a while, but she mended. The death of her husband in 2008 was another blow, but Morris said she keeps busy with the Middle Age Majorettes, the St. John Singers, dancing classes, cooking classes, attending St. John Yacht Club events, taking care of her dog and cat, and keeping up with her vacation rental, Sugar Bird Nest.
"It’s fun for me because I meet so many new people," she says.
Find out more about Sugar Bird Nest at www.sugarbirdnest.com.
Buy "Marshmellow Little Cloud Discovers an Island" from Morris by calling 693-7788, at the Friends of the Park store in Mongoose Junction, at the Papaya Cafe bookstore in the Marketplace shopping center, or at www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com.
