Dentist to the Stars

By JENNIFER MOONSONG
For the Daily Times

May 31, 2008 07:24 pm

— Robert Morrison has lived a charmed life.
“If I had my life to live over, I don’t see anything at all I’d want to change,” Robert, now 84, said.
Born the unlucky 13th child in a Michigan family of 16 children, Morrison says he has been anything but unlucky.
“Really,” Robert said. “I’ve been so very lucky. I’m probably the luckiest one in the family.”
Robert attributes much of his luck and happiness in life to his father. “He was a character,” Robert said. “Both a politician and a woodsman.”
Raised a farm boy, Robert joined the military at 19 and flew a B-25 bomber during World War II.
“It was my dream to fly the P-61 but the war ended ... and I didn’t get the chance. Looking back that was a real streak of luck too because the casualty rate for flying those was 82 percent.”
It was during his brief but turbulent military stint that he met his wife, Pat, in California. The two had a whirlwind romance that led to a marriage that lasted many, many years until Pat’s death.
“I went back to Michigan and got my bachelor’s degree in dentistry,” Robert said. “It was a four-letter word that took me to Las Vegas – WIFE. She was California born and raised and she wanted the warmth. She told me we could go anywhere that she could plant a palm tree.” They went to Las Vegas and planted the palm tree he promised her.
The move turned out to be the move of a lifetime for Robert’s career as a dentist.
“It was in the early 1950s when we moved there and it was wonderful,” Robert said. “It was when you could still walk down the street and everyone knew your name.”
Morrison developed a great dental practice there because he was performing procedures that his competition didn’t know how to perform.
“I was offering root canals,” Robert said. “People just couldn’t believe that you could actually save a tooth.” He developed more with his patients than good bedside manner. Robert developed lifelong friendships.
Most of Dr. Morrison’s patients were not your run-of-the-mill customers either. At a time when Vegas was truly booming, many of his patients were celebrities and Las Vegas stars and starlets.
Among Morrison’s big name patients were Jimmy Durante, Danny Thomas, Peggy Lee, Jack Benny and many more.
“Bing Crosby was one of the finest men to ever live,” Robert said. “I was almost his best man when he came to Vegas to marry, but I was beat out by a sheep herder from his ranch.”
Charro and Durante were two other favorites of his.
“Jimmy Durante was the most humble guy and Charro is such a vivacious person,” Robert reminisced. He did dental work for Charro and her sister for many years and she still consults him from afar although he has retired.
“I spent 51 years in Vegas and it was wonderful.”
Four years ago, a twist of fate brought him to Glasgow.
“One of my daughters married a man from here and I came for a visit,” Robert said. “Las Vegas had gotten too big for me really.” He was so impressed with the Bluegrass state that he moved.
“I love it here,” he said. “There are friendly people and I walk a lot and there are great places to walk. I feed peanut butter and raisin sandwiches to the squirrels. I am glad to have time to appreciate nature now, because I didn’t always have time for that with the practice.”
Before and after retiring to Kentucky, Robert has enjoyed a great deal of travel within the states and abroad. He even took on the daunting task of walking the entire length of Great Britain.
“I read a book about a lady physician who had done the same and I thought if she could it then so could I,” Robert said. He has written books about both the walk and his star-studded experiences with his dental practice.
During his travels, he also had the opportunity to see something that brought his life experiences full circle.
“I had a patient who had escaped the Warsaw ghettos through the sewer system and found her way into Russia,” Robert said. “It was wonderful seeing the ghettos on the memorial there to those who escaped.”
That’s not to say that his full life is complete. Robert most recently sent in his admission application to Western Kentucky University. “I love art and music,” Robert said. “I didn’t get nearly enough of that in college. It didn’t seem practical with my major.”
It seems perfectly practical now and he is looking forward to learning more about the things in life he is passionate.
“I’ll be taking an art appreciation course,” Robert said.

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