Thu Mar 11 2010
by Jeff Saunders
Reporter
Macedonia -- For Pearl Morton, the half-dozen small aging disks are a connection with the father she does not remember.
Morton said her father, Meyer Maroff, was in the Army when he was killed in the Philippines on Oct. 28, 1944.
"I was only 2 when my dad died," said Morton.
"I have a picture, a family picture of us," she added. "I have pictures of him holding me, but I have no recollection of him."
But she can hear his voice. Like many who served in the military during World War II, Maroff sent letters home, but he also sent six recorded messages on 7-inch diameter disks, five of them wax and one cardboard. The discs were to his mother and his wife, Morton's mother, but on one, he addressed Morton.
Morton said she heard the disk on which her father talks to her many years ago, but has not had the equipment to play the recordings for a long time.
Now, however, she can listen to most of them all she wants.
Morton said that after seeing an Oct. 28 News Leader story about Summit Audio and Visual, a Northfield Center studio owned by radio broadcasting engineer Jim Davison, she contacted Davison about transferring the fragile recordings to a digital format.
"I wanted to get them put on a CD before they get any worse," said Morton. "I'm very happy to have found [Davison] because he's very knowledgeable and knows what he is doing."
Davison, whose clients have included Dick Clark and Casey Kasem, said he was touched by what he heard when he listened to the recordings.
"Sometimes, work I do for local people like Pearl is the most satisfying," he said.
Davison made two copies of the CD, one for Morton and one for Morton's younger sister, Dorothy.
Davison said that while he was able to transfer five of the recordings, one was too badly damaged to do anything with. Unfortunately, it was the one on which Maroff addressed Morton directly, but Morton said she still has her memories.
"He said something like 'Be a good girl and take care of your mother,'" she said.
On one of the disks, dated May 7, 1944, Maroff wished his mother a happy Mother's Day. He also expressed a prediction that for him would never come true.
"Someday, the war will be over and we'll all be able to live normal lives," said Maroff.
Morton said that after her father's death, he was buried in the Philippines for several years.
"He came home in '48," she said, adding that he is now buried in Mt. Sinai Cemetery in Mayfield Village.
Morton also said that despite having no memory of her father, she still feels he is a part of her life.
Morton has researched her father's service and belongs to the American World War II Orphans Network, an organization for the children of Americans who died in the war.
And thanks to her father's service, her college education was paid for by the GI Bill.
"My life has been defined by the fact that he died in the war," she said. "I have felt a few times that he is watching over me."
E-mail: jsaunders@recordpub.com
Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3169
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