A Striking Conversation With Mayor Dwain Morrison

Lately, Mayor Dwain Morrison has been wearing what could become his trademark, or brand if you will. He's been sporting a white, straw cowboy hat with the body of a rattlesnake coiled around it, like a hat band. It’s positioned so its head peeks just slightly above the brim, mouth open, fangs bared in striking motion, each head movement adding to the illusion of its strike. LIVE! met up with the mayor for a chocolate shake at Whataburger yesterday afternoon to find out more about the the man under the rattlesnake hat.

“I’ve wanted one of these things for the last couple of years, and I couldn’t find one,” Morrison said as he shook the hat, the tail making that familiar rattling noise. “When we came back from California three or four weeks ago, we stopped at El Paso Saddle Blanket. I went in there to buy some longhorns to put on the hood of my ’78 Cadillac restoration project. As I was leaving, I thought about the rattlesnake and went to the back of the store, and there they were in a glass case,” he said with a big smile.

According to Morrison, his wife does not like his newest accessory but he is not discouraged by this.

“I’ve had a lot of comments on it, some good, some bad. I like it, I’m proud of it, and I think it is a real conversation starter.”

 As it turns out, he also has an admiration for automobiles, somewhat of an enthusiast you could say. The 1978 Cadillac he recently bought the longhorns for is just one of 10 cars and trucks that he owns right now, and that’s after a couple of recent sales.

“When I was fourteen, when I started driving, my Daddy bought a ’56 Chevrolet. We fixed it up and I started driving, it was my first car,” he said. “I drove it for about two or three weeks, and I came home one day and Daddy said we are broke, your car is advertised in the [local paper] tomorrow, go clean it up, wash it, wax it, because I’m going to sell it, and he did. He split it with me, handed me my half, and said you are on your own, and that’s been about 3500 cars ago.”

He is somewhat a connoisseur of Ebay Autos, a website where cars are sold at auction online. Friday he was driving his favorite vehicle, a tan ’86 Chevrolet Silverado, complete with a Vote for Morrison car door magnet, that he bought a couple of years ago in Arkansas. He said he considered driving his Cadillac, but the possibility of rain was high, and the dark gray skies yesterday gave clear signs of some type of precipitation.

“I had a ’69 Camaro that I’ve had since 2002; I completely rebuilt it and sold it just a couple of months ago. Then I found an ’84 Z28 Camaro which is my next favorite model, and I found that one in Portersville, California on Ebay and I bought it four weeks ago. It’s red all over, and it’s a beauty. It’s got 60,000 miles on it, it’s been in storage for 20 years and this thing is sweet, sweet, sweet.”

His father, who worked for 40 years at the San Angelo National Bank, was also a buyer and seller of cars, although his use for it was more out of necessity.

“He bought and sold cars,” Morrison said. “He did it because he needed the money to survive. He was always buying houses, selling cars, did some farming, he always worked. Even on Saturdays, after he left the bank for the day, he worked; Daddy did everything he could to make ends meet.”

With that in mind, it’s easy to see where he acquired the love for Detroit steel and an aggressive work ethic. He worked for Sears Roebuck for 13 years at a time when San Angelo’s downtown still thrived as the hub of city business, restaurants, entertainment and shopping. In 1983, after his youngest son was born, his wife decided she would like to go back to college to achieve her dream of becoming a teacher. Morrison obliged, and supported his wife by quitting his job to take care of the kids, but he didn’t really just stay at home. 

“I quit my job and I went into business for myself. That boy (the youngest) would go out on jobs with me at two years old and I would set him up in a playpin and I’d work.”

Morrison and his wife Vicki have three sons. His eldest son, Darren, scored the local hit “Blame It On Blaine’s” in 2001 and currently works for himself as a contractor. Morrison’s second son, Brian, is an educator, and is married. Brian made the Morrisons proud grandparents three times. Wesley, the boy in the playpin, is Morrison’s youngest son who is now a teacher in Sterling City. “All of my kids are good, responsible people,” he said proudly. “And all of them grew up building fences.”

Morrison started his civic service in 2003 as SMD 2 representative for 10 years, until he was elected mayor in 2013. A native of San Angelo, he has seen the city at many different points throughout time, and through many political changes, like mayors, city councilmembers and city staff. He gave LIVE! a rundown of key events that predate our publication, regarding city affairs.

Many remember Mayor J.W. Lown in San Angelo with fondness. In fact, it’s been heard that if he were to return to San Angelo and run for mayor, the people would vote him in faster than a rattlesnake striking.

“J.W. was a very good friend of mine; he is still a good friend. I still communicate with him,” Morrison said. “He was never improper with me. I always knew his leniencies, but he was nothing but respectful. He is a good guy. I don’t approve of his lifestyle, and I wrote him a letter telling him so and explained why. I talked to him just like I would one of my sons, and we are still good friends, he is extremely bright.”

He talked about the resurrection of downtown over the last ten years, and all of the progress that downtown has made in an effort to restore it to a thriving hub once again, the one Morrison remembers as a kid growing up in San Angelo in the sixties.  

What is now the Judge Edd B. Keyes building used to be the Sears Roebuck building, Morrison’s place of employment through the seventies; he remembers how different it was then. “Bill’s Man Shop was Woolworths, were the library is now was Hemphill-Wells, further down the street was Montgomery Wards, on the corner where Meyer’s Drug is now was JC Penney, and all of the drug stores and restaurants, it was all there, and it was busy all of the time, it was a thriving metropolis,” he said as he motioned with his hands.

The efforts to revitalize downtown and different areas of San Angelo have been underway for more than 15 years. Morrison points out the city's work on funding and solving issues along the way, and one would have to be blindfolded not to see the progress than has been made to restore it. Morrison said that the progress has impacted San Angelo in a positive way.

Morrison’s motto in life: “I don’t like unfairness, things must be just. In everything you do you must be just, there’s a verse in Micah, and that’s exactly what it says, love justice, love mercy, and walk equally with God and man, and that pretty well says it all.”