Louise was born in Benzonia, Mi, in the home of her parents, Samuel & Mary Morris. She attended the one room school house on Homestead road until the age of 11. The family moved over to S. Manitou Island in 1928, to run the farm of her grandfather August Beck, who was ill. Louise and Chester were the only children who moved to the island with their parents. Louise stayed on the island and attended 7th & 8th grades at the one room school house on the island. At the end of the summer of her 13th year her father put her on the ferry back to the mainland to attend high school in Glen Arbor. She did not want to go to Glen Arbor because her sister, Iona and her brother, Chlore were going to school in Benzonia. Her father said he could not afford to send her to Benzonia because he could not afford to pay the tuition.(They were out of the school district).Being the stubborn Morris that she was, she insisted, so she attended Benzonia where she lived with total strangers,and worked for her room and board, and to pay tuition to attend school..
Louise married Howard Oligney and they resided in Detroit, Mi. for about 40 years. (They lived thru the race riots of 1967). Howard was born in 1912, and passed away in 1976. |
