When Jack Morton received the news that his father Bud was seriously ill he knew he had to come home and help with the family business.

“I was in the Air Force stationed in Phalsberg, France when I got the word he had cancer,” remembers Morton. “I never figured on quitting the military but family comes first so I came home.”

That was in 1961 and Jack Morton has run the family business until health issues have forced him to partially retire. He is presently preparing for his fifth back surgery.

Actually, my mother, Mary B. (Herrington) was the first one in the parts business. She was the parts person for the Chevrolet business in Bassfield.

My dad was from Osyka and he would bring his brother here to see Effie Doris Clark. He would while away his time at the store where my mother worked.

After they married they started the business in 1927. It was called Bassfield Sales & Service then. My mother worked as hard at it as my dad did.

She wanted to cook for her family so we had a little café in the store as well.”

Bassfield was very different in those days. Morton was the third child born to the couple in 1933 and has a vivid memory of how the town was in the ‘40s.

“There was so much foot traffic you could get stepped on while on the streets of Bassfield. Can you imagine that?

With three gins running until 9-10:00 at night the streets were crowded. Main street had a café and a movie theater where I first saw Gone with the Wind for a quarter.”

“You didn’t have to leave Bassfield to get anything. Everything was sold right here.

The O.T. Hathorn store that had groceries and a meat market has a tire place in it now.

The A.F. Carraway Store bought cotton and financed the sharecroppers, and Dr. Blount, Buford’s dad, was the town doctor.

Ernest Silgest ran the gristmill where everyone brought corn to be ground. He was also the meat man in T.O.’s store and the town constable.” Then Morton says with a grin, “ But he still would drink with the rest of ‘em on Saturday night.”

Morton remembers well the passenger train that ran from Hattiesburg to Natchez and back every day but states he never rode it. “My grandmother, Gracie Calhoun, would ride the train to Prentiss to see her sister. They didn’t have a car then.

It was at the train depot platform that farmers sold their crops.”

Not everything was rosy in the “good ole days” in Bassfield. Morton states the roads were so bad they would shake your car to pieces. “Mechanics had plenty to do in those days and the parts stores stayed busy.”

As a teenager Morton says his job was washing cars. “My mother couldn’t stand me working out in the cold weather so she would heat me some water in the store kitchen to use. She took care of me.”

Though working in a store was not as exciting as working on jets fighters in France when Morton returned to Bassfield he made a go of it. Business had begun to lag with his father’s waning health and to breathe new life into it Morton became affiliated with NAPA as a parts distributor improving business considerably.

Morton, now 80 years old, states things have changed since he grew up around the business. “People are not as friendly as they were. They want more than you can produce for the money sometimes.”

Today the business continues in the family. Morton’s son Eddie and his sister’s grandson, Nathan Wambolt, continue to bring their family style service to the Bassfield community.

Long-lived family businesses are becoming the rarity and JDC is fortunate to have Morton’s Auto Parts still run by Bassfield family generations.