John Wayne: Biography

Year

Country

Home

People

Films

Articles

Store

1914: The Family Heads West

When Wayne’s mother Molly informed her parents that she was taking her young family out West to be with Clyde, they were naturally concerned.   They liked Clyde, but were aware of his failings.   They worried so much about their daughter and grandsons living 2,000 miles away that they decided to move from Des Moines to California too.

Clyde collected them at the railway station and transported them to Lancaster, a Godforsaken town straight out of the old west with a 200-foot-long trough in the main street for watering horses and only two paved streets.   The house – little more than a shack – had no utilities, and was surrounded by sagebrush, sand and snakes.

Clyde and his family worked hard on the farm, tilling the soil and planting crops, only to see them eaten by wild desert animals the moment they began to grow.   The conditions took an inevitable toll on the Morrison’s marriage, creating a rift that would never be completely healed, and Molly, miserably unhappy, would sometimes take her frustration out on little Marion, whom she could barely tolerate.

 [ADD]