Capturing Ole Miss

It was in the Grove at Ole Miss when two unsuspecting college girls bumped into each other and quickly realized they both had on the same orange and white dress. The moment unfolded before Bill Morris’ eyes and with his camera in hand he captured it perfectly.

This photo is one of 300 photographs in Morris’ debut book “Ole Miss at Oxford: A Part of Our Heart and Soul.” In his book, Morris paints a picture of the good times in Oxford through his photos of people picnicking in the Grove, hanging out in the Square, or enjoying football games. His photos also include some historical buildings and beautiful scenery in Oxford.

A native Jacksonian and Ole Miss graduate, Morris is the founder and president of The William Morris Group P.A., an insurance and marketing firm.

Morris has always had a creative and artistic side to him that he shared with his wife, Camille. But his love of photography, however, began when his daughters, Camille and Kathryn, were born.

“I began photographing when my children were young and it grew as they got older and we would go to different venues,” he said. “Somewhere in the late 1980s, I bought some better equipment and began to photograph around Oxford.”

Morris was captivated by the beauty of the little town itself and of the people.

“As time went by, I began to photograph in the Grove and in various venues downtown, various people and places around Oxford.”

Morris said although he is not a professional photographer, he feels he was blessed with an eye for those things unique and also some things ephemeral.

“My eyes were open to people and places that I had some sense of the temporary nature of the journey through this part of time,” he said. “I photographed a number of people whose photo was the last ever taken of them.”

In the book, Morris recalls that he always has a camera in his hands and he sees things that might elude him otherwise.

He says in the preface, “With the knowledge that these particular moments will not come back again, they become cherished at the very time they are unfolding. By understanding this, a different and more complete perspective is revealed. Sometimes Camille or the girls would say, ‘No let’s not stop and take a picture right now,’ and I would reply, ‘If not now, when?’”

Although Morris always had his camera in tow at Oxford, he didn’t think about a book until the late 90s thanks to the support of literary great Willie Morris.

“I was a very big fan of Willie Morris and we became pretty good friends over a period of time,” Morris said. In November 1998, Morris had dinner with Willie and wife JoAnne at the Mayflower Cafe. “We discussed a number of things and talked about my photographs of Oxford,” he said. “One of the things he said to me was, ‘Bill, we ought to do a coffee table book.’”

Morris was honored but first Willie had two books he had to finish. Sadly, Willie Morris died the following August, but the encouragement Bill received from him never left.

During Eli Manning’s years at Ole Miss, Morris took a great number of photographs of him and the team. “Those were some special days,” Morris said. “I’m in the Rebel Club East and I’m on the first row, so I’m practically on the field but up high. I really got a lot of good shots of Eli.”

Morris would run into Archie and Olivia Manning at City Grocery Restaurant frequently. “I told them I wanted to do a photo album,” he said. “But as time went by, it didn’t get done and every time I’d see them I’d get embarrassed that I hadn’t done that.” But when Eli Manning was to open the Eli Manning Children’s Clinics at the Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children, Morris vowed to get the photo album done.

“A young lady helped me get this together and we sent it to a company that would do a photo album,” Morris said. “I got just a few copies and I presented it to them after he had cut the ribbon on the children’s clinic addition.”

The Mannings were appreciative, but according to Morris, when he showed it to some of the people at Lemuria Bookstore, they told him they had never seen a book quite like this about Oxford. “They told me if I were to do a book about Oxford and Ole Miss, they thought it would sell for a long time,” he said. “I talked to someone at University Press and we put this together and created a journey through these photographs.”

Three hundred photos were then picked from thousands Morris has taken throughout the years. Morris has many favorite photos in the book and finds sharing them to be a great joy.

He took a photo of the Smittys one morning at Smitty’s Café, a restaurant that was once located just off the Square (now the 208 Café). “It used to be a fabulous place for breakfast downtown,” Morris said. “I remember sitting in there and photographing Smitty one Saturday morning. His wife told me later that that was the last photograph taken of him.”

Morris said the reception of the book has far exceeded all of his expectations.

“The comments I have received have been very humbling,” he said. “I’m deeply thankful I could do this book for those people that love this area and those that might not be familiar and that want to learn about Oxford and Ole Miss.” Morris said he even has had positive comments from people who didn’t go to Ole Miss. “Regardless of where you go to school, this book is for all of us,” he said.

Northsider Nancy Chamblee, who is featured in the book with husband Rodney, told Morris she loved the book and it would be something that she would cherish for a long time. She said she felt so flattered to be in the book and was also appreciative of the pictures of the Downtown Inn. “I truly enjoyed every picture in the book,” she said.

Will Lewis, owner of J.E. Neilson Co. in Oxford, called the book a real tour de force, and Gayle Poole said, “One only has to melt into each photo to sense the mood altering effect of the Grove.”

Morris said he was most enchanted by the photo of the girls who were dressed alike on page 80 and he found out only a few weeks ago that the girls didn’t even know each other. “I didn’t know either one of them, I just took the photo,” he said. “I was headed up to Square Books the weekend of the Tennessee game and my signing was to start at 6 p.m. I walked back outside before the signing started and there was a woman who came running up to me and said, ‘You were the photographer who took a photo of my daughter.’” Morris was elated to meet one of the girls in the photo.

Morris said he has also been extremely happy to see people who he has not seen in years and close friends of his buying the book. “I can’t tell you what a feeling that is,” he said. “Only an artist will know what I am talking about. To use one of Willie Morris’ words, ‘It is an ineffable feeling.’”

Morris has no intention of retiring from his work, but does plan to write more books in the future. “I enjoy enhancing my life by the other talents that have been given to me in the artistic field.”

Portico magazine

Nan Graves Goodman

Jackson’s own native son Bill Morris, often seen around town with his ever trusty camera, gives Ole Miss Rebel fans a real treat of a trip down memory lane. He shows Ole Miss in all of its glorious occasions in and out of the Grove’s allure of picnickers and partiers before and after home games, as well as an accurate and all encompassing look at the beautiful Southern town of Oxford, Mississippi. Morris captures rich colors as seen in an autumn’s day on campus, as well as the characteristic stroll of shoppers in and around the courthouse square on a weekend filled with Ole Miss fans and curious visitors. Famous buildings such as the Lyceum, Farley Hall, and Fulton Chapel, among many others, as well as notable buildings on the square, such as Square Books, Neilson’s, and the Courthouse all work the lure of nostalgia on the reader. Other historic photographs around town, such as Faulkner’s home Rowan Oak, as well as the cemetery where he was interred, give a rich look as well. Of special interest to sports fans, will be Hemingway Stadium, captured in the midst of games, both on the field and off. For a current look at this ever popular Southern destination, no book on the market fits the bill as this one by Jackson’s Bill.
copyright, Portico magazine

The Greewood Commonwealth newspaper logo

Ole Miss book good for fans, alumni

Published: Saturday, January 2, 2010
Jim Fraiser Book Review

A wise old Southern sage one opined that you can't go home, but if home is where the heart is, especially if you're carrying a camera with you while you're there, you can certainly bring "home" with you wherever you go.

William H. Morris Jr., the founder and president of the insurance marketing firm the William Morris Group PA, turned amateur photographer extraordinaire, left his heart at Ole Miss when he graduated in the mid1960's, but kept his camera handy while matriculating there and whenever he returned to the campus after graduation.

The result is "Ole Miss at Oxford. A Part of Our Heart and Soul," a photographic reminisce of Mississippi's flagship university through the last fifty years.

Robert C. Khayat, arguably Mississippi's finest university president/chancellor during the past century, notes in his brief foreword that Morris has captured the "beautiful scenes, warm transgenerational friendships, the excitement of athletics and the extraordinary phenomenon of picnics in the Grove" that define Ole Miss to many of that university's most ardent fans and supporters.

I couldn't have expressed it better.

And while the photos of downtown Oxford, the antebellum campus, people meandering through the Grove, and action shots of various Rebels scoring in Vaught-Hemmingway Stadium will please many alumni, Morris added a welcome dimension by depicting university life as it has evolved through the past five decades.
One section displays the Grove's many faces, including the time when cars inhabited it on football weekends, the earlier era before cars or tents were allowed, and its present incarnation in which tents dominate and throngs of fans young and old giddily trod its oak-lined sidewalks and lush green spaces renewing acquaintances and planning another victory over LSU and other SEC rivals.

Generations of Mannings grace these pages, as do renowned celebrities, powerful politicians in the make and hundreds of regular folks who return to Ole Miss in the spring, summer, fall and winter to relive their glory days and hope for the national championship in baseball or football that eluded them during their tenure.

Oxford's square, replete with nationally renowned restaurants and book store are duly represented, as are the myriad of lovely red brick, white-columned buildings, antebellum and post bellum alike, that have made this university one of America's most lovely repositories of academia.

If your idea of a coffee table book is limited to that of a tome with award-wining professional photography accompanied by text offering stunning insights about the history I architecture and culture of a place, this is surely not the book for you.
However, if you seek a satisfying pictorial reminiscence about the university you recall with a glow in your heart and a sparkle in your eye, and would appreciate a workmanlike photo album with which to better explain your collegiate experiences to your children, visitors from up North or those folks from rival schools who think they attended a historic and pulchritudinous university, William H. Morris's Ole Miss at Oxford is certainly the book for you.

Jim Fraiser, a Greenwood native, is a federal administrative law judge in Tupelo, and the author of 12 books

Ole Miss Alumni Association

Having established himself as a successful businessman with a thriving insurance agency, Bill Morris (BBA 64) didn’t need another job. But when his two daughters were born, he picked up a camera for the first time. Thirty years later, photography has become a passion and a nearly full-time endeavor. Morris recently released Ole Miss at Oxford: A Part of Our Heart and Soul. The book is a pictorial study of the City of Oxford, the campus of Ole Miss and the people who inhabit and love them both.

The book contains more than 300 photos of fans reveling in the Grove, stately scenes from across the Ole Miss campus, historical sites from the square and other scenery in and around Oxford.

A native of Jackson, Morris is founder and president of The William Morris Group, an insurance consulting and marketing firm. He is the author of two books on disability income insurance and has authored other insurance articles in various industry periodicals. But it is his photography that moves him most. He’s self-taught, having never taken a class or formerly studied his craft. But he says that over the years he’s developed an eye for capturing a special moment and a knack for being in the right place at the right time.

“I’ve learned to see if something is fouling up the picture ahead of time,” he explained. “I can move to an angle that cuts out a stop sign or something, or if people are standing around and they’ve all got things in their hands. A lot of times I’ll make them put that stuff down because your eye always goes to what they’ve got in their hand. Doesn’t matter what it is; it’s still the same effect. It takes away from the essence of the people and focuses on that item.”

Morris says photography is also spiritual experience for him. “It awakens all of my senses to the preciousness of what’s going on around us,” he said. “Those moments really don’t come back.”

“I did this really to give back,” he added. “It’s for all of the people who have written me to thank me. This was something that I felt called to do, and in doing so I’m so blessed by these responses from people.”

His appreciation for the beauty found in Oxford and Ole Miss led him to collect thousands of photos of the area over the years. Yet despite those many photographs in his files, he still remembers the first photographs he took of Oxford.

“I got up early one morning and started going around the town and was just marveling at the shadows going across the buildings,” he said. “It was just an exhilarating feeling. I spent a great deal of that day photographing it. It has continued ever since. Any time I’m up there, I’ll have a camera with me and naturally there are things to photograph. “

Morris formed a publishing company, Heart and Soul Publications, to release the book and plans another release—this one on ‘50s and '60s doo-wop musicians—within the next year or so.

“I was always a fan of groups like The Drifters and The Moonglows. They were really the best singers,” he said. Morris has collected photographs of musical acts in various places across the country, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in New York, The Pioneer Awards in Los Angeles and Symphony Hall in Boston. Morris plans to eventually donate his music photos to the University Archives & Special Collections

Bill Morris is an active member of the Ole Miss Alumni Association.
Bill, Ole Miss thanks you.

Ole Miss named 'Most Beautiful'

Published 8/31/2011
Jerry Mitchell

The University of Mississippi is out of the top 25 NCAA pre-season football rankings, but it scored first with Newsweek. The national news magazine ranked the university "Most Beautiful" for its campus and student body. "No one wants to spend four years in Uglyville," the magazine wrote. "Newsweek crunched the numbers to determine which colleges offer it all - the most beautiful campus and the most attractive students."The magazine used data from The Best Colleges list of the 50 Most Beautiful Campuses, PopCrunch's annual ranking of the 50 Hottest Student Bodies and College Prowler grade for male and female attractiveness.

Ole Miss outdistanced its SEC foes - the University of Alabama (No. 3), the University of Florida (No. 5), the University of Georgia (No. 8), the University of Kentucky (No. 12) and Auburn University (No. 15) - to seize the top spot. Nrated colleges and universities in a broad range of categories, from "Most Service Oriented" (Rhodes College) to "Least Rigorous" (SUNY at Binghamton) to "Greenest" (Oberlin College) to "Happiest" (Yale University).

The only other Mississippi institution to make a Newsweek list was Mississippi State University, which ranked third in "Healthiest."MSU has made a major commitment to improving students' health, said Dr. Robert Collins, director of University Health Services. For instance, students can now choose healthy options for meals and use more than 200 bikes on campus to ride.

In an unrelated study just made public, Washington Monthly magazine ranked Jackson State University ninth nationwide in the category of "social mobility, research and service ratings." It is the only historically black college or university to break into the magazine's top 10. JSU Provost Mark G. Hardy said in recent years university officials have sought to "better serve our students - especially those who don't have the means for college tuition - and to train them for careers in research and community service."

Sparky Reardon, dean of students at Ole Miss, said he's glad the university missed making Newsweek's list of "Best Party Schools" (Ole Miss came in third in Princeton Review's "America's Top Party Schools" earlier this year).He said Ole Miss does have "beautiful students, and beauty comes in many forms." He pointed to three Ole Miss students - Bowman Hitchens, Rob Treppendahl and Max Zoghbi - who kayaked the length of the Mississippi River as a fundraiser, refusing offers to stay in people's homes. Hitchens remarked before the trip, "Since we are raising money for the homeless in Oxford, it's only right that we get to know what it feels like to be homeless." Reardon said that's one of hundreds of stories of students who are making a difference.

As for the physical beauty, "we have students who do take pride in how they look," he said. "The rumor is they dress up for class, but that is far from true. Nike shorts, T-shirts and flipflops are the order of the day."

Colby Woods of Byhalia, a 19-year-old sophomore in the Honors College and the Croft Institute for International Studies, said the ranking makes him feel like he made the right decision in choosing Ole Miss. "For not that much money, you get an area that's culturally rich," he said. "It's the most beautiful campus, and there are Southern belles, I can't deny that."

Porter Wells, 22, of Jackson, who graduated in May with a degree in international studies and French, agreed the campus is lovely, but "I just don't know if the men deserve the 'Most Beautiful.'" As she walked across campus, "I would see these really beautiful girls with these mediocre-looking guys," she said. "All these guys dress the same, and they don't work out."

Keeping the Ole Miss campus lovely is the main job of Jeff McManus, director of landscape services.Both former Chancellor Robert Khayat and current Chancellor Dan Jones have pushed to make sure the campus has a "wow" factor, he said. "We feel like we're a big part of helping recruit. You never know who is going to be on campus today for the very first time." Studies show prospective students who have not decided on a university make a decision within the first 15 minutes of setting foot on campus, he said.

Brian Knox, 55, who graduated from Ole Miss in 1978, has traveled as far as Hawaii and Japan, but believes the campus and co-eds are indeed the most beautiful. "When you put everything together," he said, "it don't get much better."