>> Well, this is James Newberry,
and I'm here with Audrey Morgan on Wednesday,
May 10, 2017, and we're here
at the Sturgis Library at Kennesaw State University.
So Mrs. Morgan, we'll start at the beginning.
What is your full name?
>> My name is Audrey Bailey Morgan.
>> And what's your birthday?
>> March 18, 1930.
>> And where were you born?
>> I was born in [inaudible], Alabama.
>> So what were your parents' names?
>> My mother's name was Mary Elizabeth.
Her maiden name was Proctor,
and my father's name was Albert Leon.
>> What did they do for a living?
They started out as farmers in Alabama.
And then I guess when I was about three,
my father was in an accident.
They had moved to Georgia because of
the Depression and he was working for the government.
They had a program back then called WPA and he worked
digging wells for families
and he went down to check a well out,
the rope broke and he was paralyzed from the waist up.
>> And what happened to
your family after he became paralyzed?
>> Well, of course,
he was very determined and at that time,
we had seven children already,
and he and my mother sold Watkins products.
The children helped him get into
the car and he still drove it,
and so they just drove over
rural Georgia selling liniment and things like that.
>> You say he and the children,
so I'm assuming these are older siblings?
>> Yeah. These are older, I'm in the middle.
There was one boy and then three girls,
and then three boys and one girl.
>> And could you tell me their names?
>> Yes. Our oldest brother was William Leon and
then there was Margaret, Bobby, Audrey, Roy.
We called him Buck, his name was
Floyd and Ray and then Anne.
>> And you lost one brother?
>> Yes, the oldest one Leon.
He died in an industrial accident.
He was welding on a tank
and the tank still had some gas in it and so exploded.
>> Well, I know you talked about moving
and living through these depression years.
Can you tell me more about your
early life, your family life?
>> Well, I went to first grade in Waverly Hall, Georgia,
and that was when they were
still selling the Watkins products.
And in Waverly Hall,
our house literally burned down to the ground.
It was a big house, all of us that was there.
My dad, all of his products were there.
And so everybody ran out but me.
So oldest brother, they
started counting who was there
and realized that I wasn't there,
so he came back in and saved me.
So then my father's family said, well, Albert,
why don't you move to Atlanta where the family is,
and we'll be able to help you more here
because his brothers and sisters lived in Atlanta.
So we moved from Waverly Hall
to Atlanta and he went to work for my uncle,
uncle had a transfer business,
and so dad went to work as a driver for him.
>> So you moved to Atlanta about 1938?
>> Yeah. I was 10 years old.
>> And where did you attend school at that time?
>> I went to Price Street Elementary School,
then I went to Hook Smith Junior High School,
and then when I only needed a few credits to
transfer to Commercial High School and Night School.
>> What was Atlanta like in those days,
moving from a more rural area to the city.
>> Well, you can't stay in your own community,
but we had street cars and when I had a job,
I started to work when I was 13.
And so you take the street car,
go where you want to go, and
we really didn't worry about it.
And when I went to Night School and I was telling KS we
came I only needed two courses,
and that's why I went to Night School to finish
up Spanish and science.
And at age 17,
my family moved out of town.
So I moved in with another family
and they were off of the car line.
They were off the bus line.
So I would have to go down to
the bus station right in the middle of
downtown Atlanta and catch the last bus,
Connolly bus had to catch
military bus, and I would take that home.
And so they lived out off of Boulevard.
Do you know where the federal prison is?
They lived, I don't know if it's
a mile or two miles out Boulevard.
And so the bus would take me in there
and that's how I would get back the next morning.
>> You said you took a job when you were 13?
>> Yeah.
>> What job was that?
>> I was selling shoes on Georgia Avenue.
>> And was it a shop?
>> It was a shoe shop. It was Penske shoes.
And they were orthodox Jewish family and they
didn't believe in going to the bank, that sort of thing.
And so finally, they trusted me enough and I used to
go make the deposits
and that sort of thing, but I sold shoes.
>> So tell me what are your memories
of the Second World War.
How did it impact your life?
>> It really didn't impact
my life that much because my brothers
were too young to go.
Obviously, some neighbors went and at church,
you would see soldiers and sailors.
And if you went to any entertainment place,
you would see soldiers and sailors.
But my sisters were old enough to date. I wasn't.
So they dated some some guys that were in
the Marines or my sister ended up marrying a pertropa.
>> Well, tell me about your sister, Bobby.
Where was she age wise in
comparison to you and
what type of a young person was she?
>> Bobby is two years older than I am,
and she was always
more interested in what Leon was doing.
And Leon, of course, was a mechanic,
always working on cars, that kind of thing.
So she was more the tomboy,
and I was the one that was expected
to do the housework and do the cooking.
So that was the difference even back then.
>> And what work did she do during the war?
>> Well, I know first her first job was
with Lane Truck store and she worked the soda fountain.
And then she wanted to do something that was
more to help with the war.
And that's when she went
to work at a horse refrigeration.
And she started out as the shipping clerk.
But then she was doing the office work,
she was doing the shipping and then when she wasn't busy,
she'd go out on line and she'd do the repairs.
>> So she had her hands in all aspects of that business?
>> Oh, yes.
>> Was it evident that she
was go getter her at that time?
>> Oh, yes, she was.
There were two brothers that were involved with
the refrigeration and they
were bought out by Warren refrigeration.
And what they did was what she ultimately did.
They were repairing compressors
and air conditioning units.
So when they were purchased,
the brother went around the corner and started
[inaudible] machine shop and he
took three employees with him,
he took Bobby and he took Dot Brown and Willie.
So there were four of them, but
she was always a go getter.
He was not the type
that would have grown in the business,
he would have been content just to
do what he was doing and but
Bobby was the one that expanded the business.
>> I see. Well, I want to talk more about that.
But first, I want to ask you,
if you remember, what year
did you graduate from high school?
>> Nineteen forty-eight.
>> And what were your plans
for after graduation?
What did you intend to
do apart from what you are doing today?
>> Well, I always dreamed of college.
I loved school. I wouldn't miss school for anything.
I was just a little sponge and just love learning things.
But what happened that
changed my life was the summer that I was 17,
I went to work for Rollfast bicycle downtown Atlanta
and the bookkeeper there was a young woman June Harper,
and we became best friends.
And so when my family moved out of town,
June said, Well, why
don't you come in and live with my mom
and dad because my mother's alone at night.
I didn't know the family that well,
but I went to live with them and that was the one that I
talked about that lived out of a Boulevard.
It was the best thing that ever happened to me.
They were wonderful Christian family.
They took me in like a daughter
because I was one of eight.
I was very independent,
doing housework, cooking, all that stuff.
I'd come home at night and May
would be waiting up for me with a snack.
And so I really felt pampered
and she would wash my clothes, things like that.
But the miracle was that
Mr. Harper was very active in the Methodist Church,
and he knew this group of men named the Tythers
who provided scholarships for deserving young people.
So he recommended me for the scholarship,
and I went downtown. Now you can imagine this.
She's a 17 year old girl who's green as all get
out and I was interviewed
by the superintendent of Atlanta Schools,
Dr. Roy West,
so he must have felt that I had potential.
So I got a work in scholarship to
Asbury College in Kentucky.
>> So was that working scholarship
it meant you went to Asbury,
you didn't choose between others.
That was the one that you expected?
>> No. That was the one that got scholarship.
I could not have gone anywhere else.
I mean, there was no money.
>> Well, tell me about that school.
>> Asbury is methodist related, very conservative school.
You wouldn't even understand.
You couldn't hold hands.
I had no money, obviously.
But my work because I could type, I took shorthand,
all that sort of thing, so I worked out of
the registrar's office and I
typed the test for the professors.
Most people who went there were
ministers or missionaries, teachers.
I had aspired to be a missionary.
That's where I met my husband,
and he came down from Detroit.
He's an engineer, he's not cut out to be a minister.
So after a couple of years,
he got an aptitude test and they said,
what are you doing at this college?
You're an engineer. So he came to Georgia Tech,
so we moved to Georgia Tech.
>> I see. Had you graduated by then?
>> No, I didn't.
We came here and we got married.
>> And what was it about him
that you liked that attracted you to him?
Why did you decide to marry him?
>> To marry Jack; he was
very solid that I knew that he would put family first,
and I knew that
he wouldn't drink and be carousing
and all that sort of stuff,
and so I just thought we were a good match.
>> Where was he originally from?
>> Detroit. And the last advice
I had before I went up there was,
don't you go up there and bring one of
those Yankee boys home,
and that's exactly what I did.
>> I think you didn't take that advice.
>> Yeah.
>> So he went down to Georgia Tech
and then you returned to Detroit?
>> Yes. Well, see,
he graduated from Georgia Tech.
He was equal mechanical and electrical engineer,
and so he got a job with General Motors,
so we moved back to Detroit.
>> And how did you feel about making that move?
>> Well, it was fine with me.
My family thought I was dropping
off the face of the Earth,
they couldn't imagine me going up there.
But the good thing was that was his home,
and so we went into his church and his family.
So I didn't have the
usual where you ghost totally into a new situation.
So no, I was fine with it, wherever Jack was,
that was home,
and so I didn't have a problem going up there.
>> When you were in Detroit,
were you keeping up with your sister
Bobbie's work at that time?
>> Yes. See, I had worked for
her part-time before I went up there,
on the weekends I would go over and do paperwork.
>> So tell me about the launching of Our-Way Inc.,
and talk a little bit about its origins.
>> Well, Bobbie was working for Our-Way Machine Shop,
and she had a partnership with Mr.
Ore, and she was really running it,
he retired in '52.
So she had an opportunity to get a contract
with the largest compressor manufacturer in the world,
Copeland Corporation, Sydney, Ohio.
And she called me and said,
I have this opportunity and would you and Jack join me?
And explained it, and I said, oh, well,
thank you very much,
but Jack loves what he's doing.
He's doing engine design work,
and I just don't think that he'd be interested.
Well, when he came home, I told him about
it and we talked about it, and he said,
well, if ever we're going to try something,
he said I'm at the right age now.
And then if this doesn't work out,
I can always come back and be a design engineer.
So she asked her to meet her in Sydney,
Ohio, and we did.
We drove down there and met Bobbie,
and we talked to the president
and then to the different ones,
and she got the contract.
Jack came down in
May of 1960 and I
stayed and sold the house and I came in June of 1960.
>> Did you have any apprehension about joining her?
>> No. And I think
we were the only ones that she would have chosen.
And she came to visit us up there,
but she knew what I was like,
and she knew what Jack was like.
It was like any new start-up because
the condition that Copeland put on
the contract was that it had to be exclusive,
she could not bring it into Our-Way Machine Shop.
They did not want
their technology being in with Carrier's technology.
So we started from the ground up,
from cement floor,
we started a new business at 320 Highland Avenue.
And so Jack and Bobbie set up
the plant and I set up
the office, everything from scratch.
>> Now, had you been working at Ford?
>> Yes, I was working at Ford Motor Company.
I was a legal secretary.
>> And that was in Detroit?
>> In Detroit, yeah. He worked for
General Motors and I worked for Ford.
>> So how did you get the Our-Way?
>> When Mr. Ore went
down the street on Elizabeth
to start the business, he said,
there's your way, talk your way,
the customer's way of doing things
and my way of doing things,
so we're going to do this our way.
So that's how it was started.
>> How simple? That's great.
>> And we always kept that.
That was a great symbol
because that really is the way that it should be.
>> And you talked about Carrier?
Was she already engaged
with the Carrier products prior to this contract?
>> Yes. I think so.
I think that was in '59 and then Copeland started in '60.
>> How was it that she got this contract?
How big was the business already before you joined?
>> I don't remember.
I know the products that she had,
she was doing Dunham-Bush,
that's a compressor manufacturer.
She had the carrier product,
and then earlier than that,
they even did window units
because that was big when window units,
we're talking about the very beginning
of air conditioning.
And they did control panels for General Electric.
So I'm not really sure
how many employees Bobbie had down on Elizabeth Street,
but our business grew very fast
because we took it on and they
only released certain wholesalers to us
until we could get really geared up and going.
But then maybe before we merged Our-Way,
well, because we did the business for
quite a number of years and we had Carrier on one plant,
we had Copeland on our plant,
we had them in separate plants and so on.
But they saw that we could do it
successfully and that there was no problem,
because the product lines were separate.
So it was okay for us to put it together,
and so that was when Our-Way Incorporated was formed.
Bobbie didn't change the name.
The other was Our-Way Machine Shop,
because that's how it started out with
a little four employees.
So then we became Our-Way Incorporated.
>> Now, you talked about
your husband and Bobbie
were working in one part
and you were working in the other,
so talk about the separation of
duties and what your position would be.
>> Yes. Well, as I said,
they both were more in the plant.
And Bobbie loved the production end of the business,
she didn't want any part of the business end of it.
Jack, of course, was quality engineering,
that sort of thing.
So as we grew,
that's just the way the company grew.
I started from scratch in
the office and wrote all the procedures,
wrote all the job descriptions,
just everything, I did all the contracts.
I handled what I would
call the corporate end of the business.
I handled the legal, the financial, personnel.
We called it data processing back then,
accounting, all of that.
I did handle the marketing.
I handled all the corporate end.
She had an office upstairs,
but she had an office in the plant too,
so she was mostly in the plant,
she loved the production end of it.
>> So you mentioned that she was hands off your part.
>> Oh, yeah. As far as my area,
Ms. Ore can handle that.
>> So what was the typical day like?
When did you arrive?
What would you do throughout the day?
>> OG. I usually
was first one there and maybe the last one to leave.
So the plant hours were from 7:00-3:30.
And then I take work home with me.
>> And where were you living
initially when you moved to [inaudible]?
>> Well, we lived in Sycamore Hills that
was Claremont Brockcliff area.
And Bobbie, well,
she first lived in Avondale Estates.
And then in 1994,
she renovated this house in Ansley Park,
and she's lived there ever since then.
And then when the plant moved to Tucker,
then we built a house out in that area,
and so that's where Jack and I live,
so we only live 10 minutes from the office.
>> I see. So you
had worked quite a number of jobs from a young age.
>> Yes.
>> And you had gone to college and then worked for Ford,
what do you think prepared you for handling all
of the corporate and business end of
this company after it became incorporated?
>> I was blessed with organizational mind,
blessed with a business mind,
and anything that I get into, I research it.
I went to conferences.
Anything that I was involved in,
I tried to learn more of that.
So I've never had a problem
really just moving into the different areas.
In fact, people didn't want me for their competitor.
I did a lot of volunteer work,
volunteer just about everything.
And I know the men have said,
glad you're not in my industry.
[LAUGHTER] So it's just that I guess the
always loving to learn
and just not backing away from things figuring that.
If they can learn that,
I'm as smart as average player.
I can learn that and then working through people.
If you're a strong leader,
you can handle engineers,
they can handle the technical part and I
usually handle all of
the major projects that we got into.
And it was more from the leadership standpoint,
from the organizational standpoint.
But if we were going for UL,
that obviously the engineers had to handle that,
but I could handle
the committee work getting it done that thing.
So my philosophy is if you're a leader,
you can get into
different areas where you don't have the expertise,
but you have to bring
competent people really good people in.
But that's how my experience has been. Okay.
>> You and your sister,
was it like she was the boss,
or were you very much partners.
>> We were partners. Note I never considered her boss.
We didn't have that relationship.
>> And I suppose this distinction
between what you were doing
also add to the fact that you
were complementing each other [OVERLAPPING].
>> Yes, Absolutely.
I tell people people say, well,
how could you work with your family?
How could you work with your sister and your husband?
And I said, you have to have the same qualities
that you have for any good partnership.
You've got to have trust,
you've got to have respect.
Your skills have to complement each other,
and all of us had a very strong worth ethic.
We didn't back away.
Whatever needed to be done, we did it.
>> Were there other members of the family involved?
>> Yes. My oldest sister,
Margaret, handled customer relations
for our Copeland customers.
Our youngest sister handled employee benefits,
the insurance, pension plan,
profit share and that thing.
And Roy was in the plant.
He was the superintendent of the carrier product line.
>> So you mentioned the innovations developed by IRW.
Can you talk a little bit that and also
Bobby do it yourself ethic.
>> Well, that's how we grew and that's how
we were successful is that in setting up the plant,
they didn't hire somebody to
come in and set up the plant.
They literally got out there and
put in the conveyor lines, did whatever.
And our work was unique in that we remanufactured.
It was not new manufacturing.
And so Jack and the vice
president later on when
we had vice president manufacturing,
they would buy equipment,
go buy used equipment, and then adapt it.
We had a wonderful shop
where if they could do
just about anything that make things.
We made all of our test panels.
Obviously, when you if
you want to understand what we did,
it's just like an automobile engine.
It's in a crank case.
And so it's got the rods, the pistons,
the crankshaft, and plus the motor.
We made electric motors.
So when you bring that engine in,
it has to be first disassembled.
Everything taken out.
So we had to go through that process,
then it had to go through
a cleaning process and a gauging process.
So we made our own cleaning tunnels just like a car wash,
except they were small or more concise.
Some huge and they would put the parts in there.
They would put the prank cases in there and so on.
Then when they came out, they had to be
gauged because we had to bring them
back to the same specs that they were originally.
And so a lot of gauging of parts and tossing the parts.
Some things we could reuse, and we couldn't.
And so it was just like in
using a system for materials management.
The ones that they had were so big,
they'd be something like general motors,
and we didn't need that.
So we had to get all of our IT stuff
done pretty much was custom, that thing.
>> I see. You mentioned this earlier,
but tell me a little more about the construction of
the new building at 230 Highland Avenue.
I assume that was because of expanding scale.
>> I said Sherman kept his horses there.
This was 230 Highland Avenue.
It was a clear two story building.
And like I said, I think now they make props in it.
But no, it was not a new building.
When we moved out to Tucker,
we built a new building.
And Bobby loved to build.
So she was the one even
though we had the contract and whatnot.
She was pretty much hands on right there with what
was going on and setting up
the assembly lines and all that thing.
So then she loved building and continued to build.
>> You mentioned the carrier and the Ohio Corporation.
Were there any other corporations
that our way had contracts with?
>> Yes. We had one with York refrigeration.
I don't know if you've heard of them,
but York is a name in the industry.
And they designed and built a gasoline compressor.
And so we made those for them
for a while that didn't fly.
So that was short lived by maybe a three year contract.
We had one with a company called Dunham Bush,
and then their line went down.
But we heard that for quite a number of years.
>> And in handling working out those contracts,
and were you the point person?
>> Yes.
>> Can you describe that process?
>> Get everything together,
get our materials together,
that we were going to discuss with them, and so on.
And I don't mean to say this in a in a boastful way,
but I remember when York came
down and we went through the whole process.
We sat around the compa table
and we told him what we could do da.
And he was on the plane going back and he
said that company's got their act together [LAUGHTER].
And they weren't really prepared for it.
But now I've never felt we just did it.
And so we'd go to carrier and meet with the folks there.
And then when we sold the business,
we were dealing with United Technologies,
because United Technologies own Carrier Corporation.
So we were dealing with some really big guys [LAUGHTER].
>> Do you remember the decision making
the decision to move
the company to Tucker? How did that come about?
>> Yes. Well, we had outgrown.
We had pretty much bought up the whole block
in Edmond Park and we're leasing buildings.
And so we needed to expand
and looked at where our employees were,
and so Tucker was good.
Bobby went out looking for places and found a,
I've forgotten how many acres we have out there.
But we started with one manufacturing plant,
then built a separate warehouse and
built a second manufacturing plant.
>> How many employees did we have at its height?
>> Well, at its height, we had 500.
And then when we sold it,
it was between 325-350.
>> And how many types of products are you producing?
>> Well, in compressors,
there was a welded compressor.
We did the welded ones,
that's the ones that are in a big,
what I would call a can,
where they're actually encased.
The type that we did was the crankcase type,
and so we did that from
a quarter horsepower up to
the ones that weighed 2,000 pounds.
So from the small one all the way up.
We also did electric motors
because that was the power source.
And so we made those,
made our own motors.
>> How much revenue?
>> It was up to 40 million.
>> Okay. So what was
the relationship like between management and employees?
>> Well, I felt we had good relationships.
In our management group,
our people came and stayed with us,
so we didn't have a whole lot of turnover in that group.
In the plant, typically,
we trained most of them because it was unique work,
and we gave away
a lot of service pens
all the way up to 30 years, 40 years.
>> Do you remember particular employees who
worked for our way for a long time?
>> Yeah, Willie Coldwell started out in
the original group and he stayed
with us until he retired.
And in our management group,
it was, I know it sounds cliche to say family,
but we really did care for each other.
And just like Don,
who was our human resource manager,
I still have dinner with Don.
He comes over, we have dinner together.
And our controller unfortunately
died and some of the others.
But all of our employees when
Carrier bought the business,
they offered all of them a formal job,
they gave them a letter offering them a job.
So all of them who chose to,
and practically all of them did, went with Carrier.
>> Now, we've touched on this a bit,
but I want to explore a little bit more.
What was it like being a woman
to lead such a large company?
>> I just don't think we thought about it.
Bobbie was already in it,
and then I joined her.
And my feeling has always been if you're
competent and people know you're competent,
then they accept you.
And we really didn't
think about breaking the glass
ceiling or anything like that.
We were just doing our job.
Only had one incident, I thought about that coming
across the town because I figured
you'd asked me this question.
Did anyone ever say, well,
what are you doing a woman in this field?
This was back in probably the '50s
and we were talking
with our insurance agent about the workers comp,
and of course,
we required them wear safety glasses,
safety shoes, that sort of thing.
And Bobbie must have made the comment that, "Well,
it's hard to keep them to wear their safety glasses."
And he said, "Well,
do you think that's because you're a woman?"
He said the wrong thing. So obviously,
he was not our insurance agent anymore.
>> So he was just dismissed.
>> Well, no, no, I wouldn't say that he was,
but I'm just saying if you knew Bobbie,
you would not say,
"Is that because you're a woman," because she was about
as tough as anybody could
be when it comes to as far as talking with
the men in the plant, that sort of thing.
>> I see. You once
were asked how men in the business treat you,
so I'm touching on this a bit more.
And you said, "Very carefully."
>> Just like I said before,
I really didn't think about it
and I think they respected us.
They knew we were competent and they knew we delivered.
So whatever we said we were going to do,
they knew that we could do it and that we would do it.
So we were respected and accepted and I never
felt intimidated or that
there would be any difference made because
we were women. I really didn't.
>> Okay. So I want to switch gears a little bit here.
Could you tell me about the Greenland expedition
that your sister and husband took part in?
>> Okay. Pat Epps who owns
Epss Air Service in DeKalb County and his friend,
Richard, heard about
the planes that were buried in
200 feet of ice in Iceland.
They went up several times and they wanted to get them.
He came up to me at a chamber meeting,
and I think he was thinking maybe I would invest in it.
I said, "Well,
I have somebody I think who would really be
interested in this," so I called
Bobbie over and introduced them.
And then she got involved in that
and we made the tool for them to go down.
They went up and they knew about where it was.
They still had to locate it.
They had to locate the planes.
And so we made the tooling for them to go down to
drill down and find the planes.
And my husband and
the engineering department were involved in that.
I was so impressed with what they did.
As I said, we had a really
good tool room and we had very,
very capable people in there, tool makers.
And they made into sections,
and this will show you the innovation,
and they had to have something to keep it from going
down in the hole when you drill, and drill, and drill.
So Jack went up to Ace Hardware and got
some bicycle handlebars and he just put
that through and that's what they they
used and went down and brought up a piece of the plane.
So they had located it with our equipment.
And then they needed, of course,
to mail down to it and we made,
they called it the gopher,
like gopher, and have you seen pictures of it?
>> No.
>> It's a big cylinder, it looks like a top,
and had water in it that heated it,
and so they bored down
over 200 feet in the ice and that's how they went down.
They had these seats that they lowered the men down
to and located the planes and brought the planes up.
>> So these were World War II year old?
>> World War II, I think
that I want to say P-38s, but I'm not sure.
>> And they were able to recover them?
>> They recovered it. They went as
far as they could with the money that they had.
Pat and Richard were just
so this was their big adventure
and that they wanted to do,
but they simply didn't have the money.
So they brought in other investors
and then actually a man,
Roy Shoffner, put in the money
to go up there finally and bring it out.
So he brought it out the parts and then he hired
the men to supervise renovating the plane,
and they flew it, and Bobbie and Jack
and our engineers went up there when they flew it.
He owned some Kentucky Fried Chicken places and was,
I can't remember the town in Kentucky.
But they called it the Glacier Girl and they flew it.
A book was written on it.
Video television was made on it.
It was quite a big deal.
>> Well, let's move into the final portion
of this interview,
and that's about your family's relationship with
Kennesaw State and your philanthropic endeavors.
So your sister Bobbie's association with
the Lorelei Ladies softball team
started in the 1940s, I believe?
>> Yes.
>> So very early. And what was it?
What was her interest?
And what was your involvement?
>> Now, the story that I was told,
there was a man, Holly Lowe,
who sponsored some young girls in baseball.
He was a Hertz dealer.
And the girls didn't even have uniforms,
and so he bought uniforms for them and
then just sponsored them after that.
And Bobbie used to go the games and
then she got to know a lot of the players.
And so they needed a sponsor,
then our company started sponsoring them.
And like anything else that she gets involved in,
she really got hands on with them and got the manager,
and of course, we do
the uniforms, all that sort of stuff.
And then they were good. They were quite good.
They were national champions.
So when Holly died,
and he left a little endowment I
think for the Lorelei ladies.
Bobbie met Betty Siegel
at a conference or
someplace like that, they hit it off,
and she told Betty she had this endowment
that she wanted to continue on with the Lorelei Ladies,
and so that's how she got involved with Kennesaw.
>> And so the taking
the softball team is what
directed Bobbie towards Kennesaw State?
>> In fact, we had a reunion of
the Lorelei Ladies here several years ago,
and it was wonderful.
You can imagine these ladies are in
their 70s and whatnot,
and they had the reception in the Bailey field.
So it was great.
Some of them had become principals,
teachers, that kind of thing,
and Bobbie remained friends with some of them.
So that was really neat.
>> Did the team become like a KSU team?
>> I believe you all have the Lorelei Ladies here.
I know that it's connected,
I'm not really sure how that is.
>> And what were Bobbie's first contributions
to Kennesaw State?
>> It would have been through that, through the sports.
I know the first one, the groundbreaking,
was for the sports facility.
Is that the softball that we came by?
>> Yes.
>> Yeah, that was her first one.
And then they introduced her to Joe.
And so, of course, you know of her interest in music.
And so she and Joe became great friends and
they needed to build the performance hall.
And so she got involved in that.
And then, of course, she gave Steinway pianos and so
it just grew relationships.
>> And can you talk about her interest
in music and how that developed?
>> Yeah. In 1980, there was a young
woman in her church that had
a beautiful voice and Bobby wanted to help her,
what do you call it?
Discover. And she's always
interested in the technical end,
so she had a sound studio built in her house.
She'd never been involved in anything like that
before but she started
being involved in the music industry
then and then she got elected
President of Georgia Music and so
she was on the board for
National Association of Recording Artists.
And then she produced the Georgia Award show.
I think 27 years maybe
and so that was very important part of her life.
>> And how did you become involved
in philanthropy and giving to Kennesaw State?
>> Well, my volunteering goes way back before
that and my first priority was underprivileged children.
And so I was involved
more with giving and
also I was chair of a children's home.
And then from that,
I got involved in cancer,
got involved in heart association,
just always volunteering for the causes I believed in.
And then I got elected to the hospital board,
so I was still involved with that.
And so because of
Bobby's involvement with KSU and the music,
I set up the first music scholarship endowment fund,
the largest endowment fund Joe said that they have.
So it goes way
back to when I was 13 years old but that's what I said.
That's what I believe
what life is all about; it's helping others.
>> Can you tell me what Kennesaw State
was like in those days,
the 1970s and '80s?
What were your impressions of it?
>> I think you've got
the best music program by non anywhere around.
I was very impressed with the music program
and of course, Betty Siegel.
It's built on relationships and she was just great.
And so we had a good relationship with her,
a good relationship with Joe and Coach Whitlock,
he's just great, wonderful.
So I've always had a good impression
of KSU and it's
just continued to grow and just be a great university.
>> So you talked about the music scholarships
but you've created several endowments,
including a nursing scholarship?
And why did you endow that one?
>> We've had a nursing shortage
as long as I can remember and
so I'm very concerned about that and I
have a scholarship also at our hospital.
And so my grandson's gotten
involved in that for the medical community.
But that's why I got involved because of shortage,
and it's even projected even more so in the future.
>> So in April 2012,
the Audrey B. and Jack E. Morgan Senior Concert Hall
was dedicated in the Bailey Performance Center
here at KSU.
What did that mean to you?
>> A great deal.
Bobby and I were sisters.
When she died, I was 85 years
and we've been business partners for
55 years and at that time, probably 50 years.
And the fact that she wanted our name
in there along with hers just meant a great deal.
>> So can I ask you about the Olympics? [LAUGHTER]
>> About what?
>> The Olympics in [OVERLAPPING] 1996?
>> I said, I had
a reputation in all the things I've done of leadership.
So Jim Miller, who's
President of Fidelity Bank and our good friends,
he was asked to chair
the DeKalb County and Gwinnett and he said,
well, I will if Audrey will.
So he came out to ask me and of course,
anything I get involved in,
I bring Bobby in so we were the
co-chairs of the DeKalb and Gwinnett County Olympics.
And we had to come up with ways to raise
money because they had
held it very tight, of course, you may not know.
But the Atlanta Olympic Committee had
really held it very
tight with their committee and whatnot,
but then when they needed more money they did have to go
out and find other people.
So we had a huge concert [inaudible] and of course,
when I got involved, the company got involved.
So our human resource manager
did races at Stone Mountain,
we sold T-shirts,
we did everything we could think of to raise money.
And what we were
told was the money we raised helped them go
to Japan to receive the award.
Jim went, he wanted me to go too but my son was getting
married so I didn't go but he went.
>> So you talked a little bit about
relationships in your giving and in your philanthropy.
Can you expand on that a bit and
what that means to you, cultivating relationships?
>> Well, I'll give you the example of Barry.
That was a cold call.
I wanted to honor Mr. and Mrs. Harper who had been
my second family and their son had gone to Barry.
So I called up Barry and I said,
I'd like to establish a scholarship
in honor of Mr. and Mrs Harper.
And so over time,
as I learned more about Barry,
what it was like,
what the people were like,
what the students were like,
I fell in love with it.
So then I needed a place to put the money from
our family scholarship because I was doing
the scholarships on an individual basis and then that's
tough to manage on your own.
So I talked to Dr. Briggs and I said,
this is the criteria I have for
individual scholarships and I'd like
to find a place to transfer
our money to and let you manage it.
So they came back with a scholarship program called
Gate of Opportunity Scholarship and so that's where
we put our money and
that's helping deserving young people.
>> And you later received an honorary doctorate?
>> Yes.
>> What did that mean to you?
>> I didn't want to accept it.
I just didn't think I deserved it but very
honored for a prestigious school
like that to feel that I deserved it.
>> And it's a rare one?
>> Very rare. They had it in the paper,
but it's very rare for them to do an honorary one.
>> Well, another honor that you received was Mr. DeKalb.
>> That's right. [LAUGHTER]
>> What was that?
>> Well, that's a citizenship award
and the Heart Association sponsors that,
and you're honored for all of your community work.
But the name of it was Mr. DeKalb.
>> So they didn't alter it?
>> No. They did not alter it and call it Miss DeKalb,
they just left it.
>> Well, finally, I want to talk a little bit
about your family today.
Can you tell me about your own family,
your children and grandchildren?
You mentioned that one of your grandsons is
involved with the business
today. Can you talk about them?
>> Not involved with the business.
I have two sons.
Jack, whom we call Gene,
he was in the Air Force.
He flew F-16s.
Came out and he flies for Delta now.
He has two children, a boy and a girl.
Both of them are attorneys,
both of them live in DC,
both of them work for Department of Justice
and between them have four children.
My grandson has twins that will be
two in August and
my granddaughter has a five-year-old and a two-year-old,
her birthday was this week.
And then my youngest son,
Bob lives in Ellijay,
Georgia and he has a 15-year-old son that I love dearly.
And so I try to see Tom.
I was seeing him about twice a month but I sent
him little texts often. [LAUGHTER]
>> Text.
>> Text. I sent him one
this morning and I told him I was coming out here and
what was going on and I try to be
a good influence and so we go on trips every year.
And that's what I did with my other two,
was that every year,
we'd say, it's spring break,
where do you like to go and
so I'm very close to my grandchildren.
And my granddaughter calls me often and we do face time,
and so it's wonderful.
>> Now, tell me about your husband,
when did he pass away?
>> November 6th, 2011.
>> And what was it like to lose him at that time?
>> Was major. He had Alzheimer's.
He was diagnosed in 2002 and died in 2011.
So miss him.
>> And can we talk once more about Bobby?
She passed away in 2015.
>> Yes.
>> And you said Bobby would always
start any endeavor by saying, let's have fun.
>> She did. And so
that's why I decided to have
the parties because she loved them.
And so Joe and I said,
for her birthday, let's have party, let's have fun.
>> So can I ask one final question?
What's the most important thing to
you in life? What has been?
>> Well, obviously, family.
As you can tell, I'm very
family-oriented and that is the most important.
And the other one is helping
others and I don't mean that to say
be goody but I figured it out
by the time I was about 13 when I was baptized,
that that's what it's all about and I took that as
my motto to help me live to help others.
I think it's all about you, me,
people, that we care about.
>> Well, thank you so much, Audrey Morgan.
>> You're welcome.