An American Family History

Morton Kenneth Tuller was born May 19, 1921 in Brooklyn at Beth Israel Hospital. His parents were Manes Tuller and Bella Levine. As a child, Morton's nickname was “Jiggs." He got this from a t-shirt with a comic character from the Maggie and Jiggs strip that his Aunt Bessie sent. 

Morton was in the Dead End Kids Tour of the United States from 1935 to 1936. The Dead End Kids were young hoodlums and the set was a street with a dead end. On one side of the street was a slum and the other was a rich area. The point was that the kid’s weren’t going anywhere without help. It was part of a campaign to raise money for programs like the Boy's Club. On this tour, he met Eleanor Roosevelt and was fingerprinted by J. Edgar Hoover. The Dead End Kids were mentioned in Mrs. Roosevelt’s “My Day" Column in the newspaper. He also met many famous people including John Wayne, Marlene Dietrich, and Loretta Young.

Morton enlisted on February 16,1943 at Fort Sheridan, Illinois. He was part of the Army Signal Core, Signal Intelligence, 9th Signal Detachment, Headquarters Ship Type B, Third Amphibious Forces.  There were 23 men in his group. He was one of 10 crypt men.  There were also 12 radio specialists and one radio repairman.  During the 34 months they were deployed they went from Algiers, Italy, Sicily, France, Philippines, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Taiwan, Sai Pan, Eniweetok Atol, Kerma Retto, Agunishinn, Je Shinon, Korea and Shang Hai. In Korea, he was one of the first Caucasians to visit. The children looked at his tall blond friend, like he was a monster. They went full steam ahead for Korea after the surrender.  On the way they passed Japanese ships with their guns depressed. The Japanese officers could wear their swords, but not their side arms. The tide went out so far the first night that  they could not return to their ship and had to sleep on the dock.

Morton married Sylvia Weiss. Sylvia was born on May 4, 1925 in Detroit, Michigan.  Morton owned a trophy business that had originally started as jewelry business. He found he was doing more business engraving plaques for trophies than selling jewelry and began to stock trophies. He won the Arizona lottery and met President Clinton and Nancy Reagan.