Early Life, Education, Military
Morrison was the son of Jacob Haight Morrison, III (1875–1929), a district attorney in Pointe Coupee Parish, and the former Anita Olivier, a New Orleans socialite. He was named after deLesseps Story, a respected New Orleans judge to whom he was related on his mother's side; the family was also related to Ferdinand de Lesseps and Alderman Sidney Story, namesake of Storyville. As a boy in New Roads, Morrison once worked for an ice dealer, Alton Gaudin, father of future Louisiana state Representative Clark Gaudin of Baton Rouge. He had a half-brother, Jacob Haight Morrison, IV (1905–1974), son of his father's first marriage to the former Eloise Yancy (1876–1905) of Jonesville in Catahoula Parish.
In 1932, Morrison graduated from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. In 1934, he completed his law degree from LSU. After graduation, he moved to New Orleans, where he became an attorney with the National Recovery Administration, a New Deal agency. Thereafter, he was a law partner with both Jacob Morrison and the future Democratic U.S. Representative Thomas Hale Boggs, Sr. He was a second cousin of Marie Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs, who succeeded her husband Hale Boggs in Congress in 1973.
As an active Democrat, Morrison in 1939 helped to organize the People's League of Independent Voters in New Orleans. In 1940, Morrison was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives for the 12th Ward; he became a reliable floor leader for the reform faction led by Governor Sam Houston Jones. One of his colleagues was his future ally and rival on occasions, William J. "Bill" Dodd, from Allen Parish.
During World War II, Morrison left the legislature to join the United States Army. He first rose to the rank of colonel, and became chief of staff of the occupation forces stationed in the city of Bremen. In 1942, he married Corinne Waterman of New Orleans. He received the Bronze Star and also served in England, France, and Belgium. He and Bill Dodd were both reelected to the legislature in absentia in 1944.
After the war, he returned to New Orleans to practice law. He remained, however, in the U.S. Army Reserve and attained the rank of major general.
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