LEROY MORRIS
LEROY MORRIS DIES AT 64
By Peter Balroop
East Bureau
Express
November 1, 2001
Page 5
Former Arima Mayor Leroy Morris, Known as "Big Horse" for his football kicking prowess in the borough, died yesterday, nine days shy of his 65th birthday on November 9.
He was the victim of an old soccer injury that eventually induced renal failure.
Morris was mayor of the PNM-controlled Arima Municipal Corporation from 1983 to 1987 and under his watch the police station was refurbished and a new landmark Arima Dial set up on Broadway.
His grieving wife, Eileen, 51, said she would miss him a lot but would carry on his business legacy.
"We had a life a lot of people envied. We were close, we did everything together," Eileen said, disclosing that the funeral of the father of six, grandfather of 16 and great-grandfather of five would take place on Saturday from the Santa Rosa RC Church starting at 1 pm.
She said Leroy was living a second life for he almost died in 1997 when the old football injury to his kidney acted up and his main organs started to shut down. Expert medical care, however, saved his life she said.
Carmelita Morris, Leroy's 86-year-old mother, who still lives opposite the shopping plaza he established on Farfan Street, survives him as well as an elder brother, Archie.
Arima Mayor Elvin Edwards revealed he knew Morris since he (Edwards) was a little boy of five in short pants.
And though they eventually ended up on both sides of the political fence - Edwards staying with the PNM while Morris shifted allegiance to the UNC - their mutual respect was constant.
Morris succeeded Norman Kistow as mayor and was followed by Edward Metivier.
Former mayor Ashton Ford, whom Morris served as a councilor in 1980, said Leroy was always "very loyal to Arima".
REMEMBERING LEROY MORRIS
By Peter Balroop
East Bureau
Sunday Express
November 4, 2001
Page 21
So close was late Arima mayor Leroy Morris to the world of finance that if he were asked at what age he died he would have said US$64.
His lifelong friend Ferdie Ferreira, former politician and Port Authority general manager, swore this was true yesterday as he delivered the eulogy at the Santa Rosa RC church funeral service held for Morris who died early Wednesday morning from acute renal failure.
Admitting that Morris was not perfect by any standard, Ferreira nevertheless waxed lyrical as he sung praises to a man whom he said was so taken by the late Father of the Nation, Dr Eric Williams, that he followed in his footsteps by trying to do the same for the borough of Arima.
Ferreira called on his captive audience at the church, where there was wriggling room only on the packed pews, not to grieve for Morris but thank God for making him available to them for 64 years.
Among the mourners were Arima MP Penelope Beckles, former Ags Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj and Karl Hudson-Phillips, Arima Mayor Elvin Edwards, former police commissioner Jules Bernard, PNM public relations officer and former Arima mayor Rose Janniere.
He said the departed businessman's love for Arima was "infectious" to the extent that it vied with his affection for his wife Eileen and his commercial interests.
Morris was ambitious and on the surface a person whom many people loved to hate but secretly admired.
Ferreira said if Morris "wasn't born he would have to have been invented" and stressed that while many saw him as aggressive, the Arima mayor from 1983 to 1987 was overly loving and king. Morris never took no for an answer, never saw any task as too big or daunting and while he may have experienced failure, bulldoggedly he fought back for he was at ties down but was never counted out.
Ferreira recalled how as bossman at his firm Eslat he had battled the mighty Angostura Group for the right to produce non-alcoholic bitters, how he was not just a politician / businessman but also a designer, florist, real estate agent and magnificent entertainer of his friends.
He was law-abiding but unconventional in his methods if it was necessary to achieve his aim, Ferreira said, insisting that for "Big Horse", as friends fondly called him, there was no mountain too high to climb.
Morris, declared Ferreira, never pretended to be anyone else for he was always out there "leading from the front".
He joked that such was the love of the former mayor for the festivities of Christmas that he must be already organising the season with the departed souls he had met.
Fr Leo Donovan, the Arima parish priest who celebrated the funeral service, pointed to the crowded church as testimony that Morris had followed Christ's admonition to love his fellow man.
He invited his listeners to believe in resurrection and that Morris had gone to a better life at God's bosom.
Morris who would have been 65 on November 9 was buried at the Santa Rosa RC cemetery.