06/14/2026
BORN AGAIN: 38 seconds of Rebirth
Caroline Ellsworth Morton (1878-1929) was a remarkable young woman. She was certainly more than an ancient grainy picture tucked away in an old scrapbook. She was born into the prominent Eugene and Harriet Ellsworth family in Iowa Falls at their mansion that once stood at the intersection of Oak Street and Rocksylvania Avenue about where the Red Rooster Restaurant stands today near the McDonald’s Drive Through. As a young girl she visited Europe with her parents. In those days of horses, trains, and steam powered ocean liners, that was a lengthy adventure for a young girl. As a beautiful young woman she attended Vassar Women’s College, returning to Iowa Falls to teach French at the newly established Ellsworth College. She married Doctor Lewis B. Morton and gave birth to her only child, Marcia, in 1905. Shortly after the death of her father, the Morton family moved to the young and growing city of Los Angeles, California around 1910. From the age of 40 onward, Caroline fought a battle with ovarian cancer and later on breast cancer. Unfortunately, in those days there was no radiology or chemotherapy and there were no antibiotics to assist with recovery from surgical procedures. Caroline Ellsworth Morton died at age 50 in Los Angeles, where she is interred at Forest Lawn with her husband, Dr. Lewis B. Morton.
For whatever fear of Artificial Intelligence we may have and regardless of what it holds for our future, it currently assists us in recovering the memory of these people from a century ago and honoring the lives they lived.
