Benn played trombone & Marylee was majorette in Monongah High band



Hertzog Drug Store of yesteryear & Marylee today

Magical & musical Morgan memories

Marylee Hertzog Gwinn, Class of 1948, who lives in Rockville, Maryland with husband E.J. Gwinn, shares her memories of Benn Morgan, also Class of 1948, who passed away March 8:

Benn Morgan

“I just wanted to tell a little about Benny's growing up in Worthington.

“He and I were born the same year and, as little kids, played together with Andrew Fluharty in the ashpile outside of Dad's drug store.

“When we were a little older he was the only one that had a bike and he would let the rest of us (the late Suzi Barr Loss and a few others) ride it. The poor bike then had to have a rest for a little while. HAHA.

“He told us that when Suzi and I were taking our music lessons he would sit outside and listen and wish he could be doing that. I think an Aunt of his then began teaching him piano and you know he zoomed past us in no time. At least our lessons did some good for someone.

“One time when we dressed up for Halloween at school in the 7th or 8th grade there was this one kid that no one could figure out who it was. She was a good-looking girl. Finally it came out ‘she’ was Benny.  

“Benny played the piano at my wedding in 1951.

“He worked for Dad at the drug store and made the homemade ice cream that we were famous for.

“We did not keep in touch very much but occasionally got together. We did not agree on politics but religion was OK. I think he was baptized along with Suzi and me.

“He will be missed by many.  

“Marylee Hertzog Gwinn”

Benn Morgan was a retired music teacher and organist/choir director of the Old Durham Church in Maryland. Benn moved from Worthington to St. Mary’s County, Maryland in 1958.
He was a music teacher in St. Mary’s County Public Schools at Esperanza Middle School, Margaret Brent High School and Chopticon High School, retiring after 30 years in 1986.

Marylee, a Fairmont State grad who also got her education at George Washington University, once worked at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

Just as Patsy Forte’s drug store was in the center of Monongah’s business district, Hertzog Drug Store was a Worthington landmark for more than a half-century.

Her father, Virgil Hertzog, started the drug store in 1922. He ran the store with family and other employees until 1972 when he sold all the stuff in the building and moved to Fairmont. Virgil lived to be 102, his wife to 100.

Marylee’s brother, Richard Hertzog, a chemical engineer and WVU grad, passed away in 2005 after living in Philadelphia and New Jersey.

Nellie Demus Bailey, Class of 1938, moved from Indiana to take over the store building with brother Nick Demus, Class of 1945.  

The Demus family was famous in Worthington for producing football players for Monongah High and Italian sausage sold at the Demus Market. Nick Demus, a former Lion gridder, had the unhappy distinction of supervising the 2009 closing and razing of the building.

 

There was Joan Demus, Class of 1941; Rose Demus Argiro, Class of 1941, who married Larry Argiro and moved to Maryland; Michael “Mickey” Demus, Class of 1948; Theresa Demus, Class of 1950, Food and Drug Administration retiree who died in 2005; Jim Demus, Class of 1954, football star (of course) at MHS; Ramona Rose Demus, Class of 1971, who died in 1977; and Nick Demus III, Class of 1973.

 

To read earlier articles about Benn Morgan in the Monongah High Alumni blog, including his obituary, click on http://jo4wvu.blogspot.com/search?q=benn+morgan