I Am Habersham: Ken Morris

Ken Morris is a familiar face if you have ever stepped inside The Hollow Log in Cornelia…or have a Facebook page with at least a handful of Cornelia FB friends. You’ll find Ken in both places…often. His is the perpetual kind face of Cornelia. If someone painted a Cornelian’s face on the side of the Big Red Apple…it would be Ken’s giant Folk Art smile and twinkling eyes.

He, along with his wife Janie – married 24 years, have been framing art in Cornelia for over 30 years. He is an expert on all things UGA, folk pottery and framed art. But more than that, Ken is known as a master chef inside his house, outside in the yard at the grill and in his backyard summer house, which by the way, is fitted each late fall with Plexiglas to keep the celebrations rolling all winter long with rock fireplace, warm drinks and joyful laughter.

Ken is a graduate of South Carolina’s Westminister High School ’65, Piedmont College ’68, and University of Georgia ’71. Before opening The Hollow Log, Ken was an Industrial Engineer at Scovill in Clarkesville. One of his favorite quotes is: “Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day; teach a man to fish, and he’ll drink beer for a lifetime.” (Tom Waits)

Good food, good friends, good stories, good times

When asked what makes Ken so happy and positive, he told Now Habersham: “Good food and liquid spirits.” Just ask anyone who has dipped into boiling crabs, giant shrimp and corn ready to be assembled on his back patio for a Low Country Boil, a recent event to promote folk pottery in Northeast Georgia.

His summer house is the perfect place for family and friends to gather, and it is put to use all year long. Ken and Janie are often joined by dozens of friends who also love to eat good food, tell outrageously funny stories, and celebrate friendship.

Ken is Habersham in many ways. The Morris backyard is equipped with grills, boilers, patios, special lighting, tropical plants, art, friends and everlasting smiles and laughter.

On folk pottery and great-grandma’s advice

Ken has a great love for folk pottery and art events that encourage others to appreciate pottery that’s off the beaten path…meaning…not from a potter’s wheel. His massive collection of folk pottery and framed art occupies just about every square inch of the Morris home. And where the folk pottery ends…ceramic poultry begins. His and Janie’s home could easily be re-named, The Southern National Museum for Folk Art.

When Now Habersham asked Ken what advice he had to offer to others, he said, “Like my Great Grandmother always said, ‘If you have something you don’t need, save it for seven years. After seven years if you still don’t need it, turn it over and save it seven more years’. I have a lot of 14 year old crap.”

Ken Morris IS Habersham, and we are proud to name him first, in the I Am Habersham series.

---