Mrs. John L. Morris (Marjorie)
Odessa, Ector County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Originator, promoter of the Globe of the Great Southwest, world's most nearly authentic replica of the Globe Theater in England made famous by the plays of William Shakespeare. Mrs. Morris was educated at North Texas State University and joined the English faculty at Odessa College. In 1961 the college named her "Teacher of the Year." She was honored 1961 as an outstanding teacher in Texas colleges. She also founded the Permian Basin Museum and area "Writers' Roundup" contest, both of which are sponsored by Odessa College. Outstanding Women of Texas series - 1967
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
An English professor at Odessa College, Marjorie Morris was the driving force behind the Globe of the Great Southwest, a remarkably faithful replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre built in West Texas. Named her college's Teacher of the Year in 1961 and honored the same year among the state's outstanding college teachers, she also founded the Permian Basin Museum and the area's "Writers' Roundup" contest. She was recognized in the Outstanding Women of Texas series in 1967.
Why it matters
Her career shows how a single dedicated educator could plant lasting cultural institutions in a remote oil-country town.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Odessa sits in the Permian Basin of West Texas, a vast, dry stretch of country transformed in the twentieth century by oil. From the 1920s onward, and especially in the boom years after World War II, the oil industry turned small ranching towns into busy cities full of drillers, roughnecks, engineers and their families, many of them newly arrived.
Booms build quickly, but they don't automatically build culture. Towns like Odessa had pipelines, refineries and supply yards long before they had museums or theaters. Community colleges, which spread rapidly across Texas and the nation in the postwar decades, often stepped into that gap, offering not only classes but lectures, performances and civic life.
Odessa College became one of those anchors. In the 1950s and 1960s, the college and the people who taught there helped give a young, fast-growing oil city a sense of itself beyond the oil patch.
People & events
Marjorie Morris was educated at North Texas State University in Denton and joined the English faculty at Odessa College. By every sign the marker gives, she was the kind of teacher who left a mark. In 1961 the college named her its Teacher of the Year, and that same year she was honored as an outstanding teacher among Texas colleges.
But her ambitions reached well past the classroom. She was the originator and chief promoter of the Globe of the Great Southwest, a replica of the Globe Theatre in England, the playhouse made famous by William Shakespeare's plays. The marker calls it the world's most nearly authentic replica. Building an Elizabethan theater in the middle of the West Texas oil country was a bold idea, and it took a determined champion to turn it from a dream into a building.
She also founded the Permian Basin Museum and the area's "Writers' Roundup" contest, both sponsored by Odessa College, giving local people places to explore both their region's past and their own creative voices. In 1967 she was recognized in the Outstanding Women of Texas series, honored while her work was still very much alive in her community.
Its place in the American story
Marjorie Morris's story is part of a larger American pattern: the role of teachers, many of them women, as builders of local culture. In countless towns, the theater group, the museum, the writing contest or the library exists because one determined educator decided it should.
The Globe of the Great Southwest also shows how Shakespeare became part of American popular culture far from the coasts. Throughout American history, his plays have been performed everywhere from frontier towns to college campuses, and a faithful replica of his playhouse in West Texas is a striking expression of that long love affair.
Finally, her career highlights the importance of community colleges in postwar America. These institutions did more than train workers; in places like Odessa they became centers of civic and cultural life, and people like Morris made that happen.
If you visit
The Globe of the Great Southwest is the obvious highlight. Picture the scale of her idea as you approach: an Elizabethan-style playhouse rising in the flat, wide-open landscape of the Permian Basin. Look at how the building echoes the round, timbered theater of Shakespeare's London, and imagine the effort it took to bring that vision to West Texas.
If you can, check ahead to see whether a performance or event is scheduled; a theater makes the most sense when it is in use. Even without a show, the contrast between the setting and the architecture is memorable.
Odessa makes a natural stop on any drive across West Texas. Pair this marker with a look at the region's oil history, which explains how a town like this grew so fast, and then reflect on the teacher who decided that a boomtown deserved poetry and plays as well as pump jacks.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
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Themes & tags
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