Cartoonist. The youngest of four children of James and Nora Spears Turner. Morrie attended McClymonds High School; in his senior year, he moved to Berkeley to finish his high school years at Berkeley High School. He got his first training in cartooning from the Art Instruction, Inc. home study correspondence course. During World War II where he served as a mechanic with Tuskegee Airmen his illustrations appeared in the newspaper Stars and Stripes. After the war, while working for the Oakland Police Department, he created the comic strip Baker's Helper. Morrie began questioning why there were no minorities in cartoons, his mentor, Charles M. Schulz of Peanuts fame, suggested he create one. His first attempt was Dinky Fellas, an all black cast that only appeared in one newspaper. He revised the members and named it Wee Pals. The cast in Wee Pals featuring childhood playmates who were white, black, Asian, Hispanic and Jewish and joined in later years by a girl in a wheelchair and a deaf girl, it was considered subversive in 1965, when a major syndicate first offered it to newspapers. Only two or three of the hundreds of newspapers in the syndicate picked it up. By early 1968, there were five. But of the many changes that occurred after the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that April and the urban uprisings it started, some of the Wee Pals first appeared in the nation's funny papers. Thirty newspapers began subscribing to Morrie's comic strip in the first 30 days after the assassination; within a few months the number had increased to 100. Morrie, who also wrote and illustrated a series of children's books and appeared as an occasional guest on the television show "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood," received the National Cartoonists Society's lifetime achievement award in 2003. Throughout his career, Morrie was showered with awards and community distinctions. He received the Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews and the Inter-Group Relations Award from the Anti-Defamation League of Bnai Brith. In 1971, he received the Alameda County California Education Association Layman's Annual Award. In 2000, the Cartoon Art Museum presented him with the Sparky Award, named in honor of Charles Schulz. Morrie was honored a number of times at the San Diego Comic-Con: in 1981, he was given an Inkpot Award; and in 2012, and he received the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award. Morrie married Letha Mae Harvey on April 6, 1946; they collaborated on "Soul Corner," the weekly supplement to Wee Pals. Morrie and Letha had one son, Letha died in 1994. Morrie was 90 years old.