A Fever in the Heart: And Other True Cases by Ann Rule Page A

the high school level. "Morris and I both weighed one hundred eighty-five pounds," Vern said. "Gabby didn't need two of us competing in that heavyweight category, and he made Morris lose ten pounds so he could wrestle at a lower weight. "Me and Morris were just about even," Vern said. "He was the only one I could go hand-to-hand with and come out even anyone else, I could just tear apart." Despite his prowess as an athlete, Vern Henderson never forgot what it felt like to be a kid who never had a father in the bleachers cheering him on, one who didn't have a dad to take him to the Father-Son banquets or to the awards ceremonies. Lots of times, Morris's dad couldn't come either, and both Vern and Morris had mothers who were working so hard to support them that they couldn't take time off. Vern and Morris and Les Rucker were a triumvirate against the world more than friends closer even than relatives. "Morris and Les were always there for me," Vern recalled. "We were all there for each other." Morris and Vern hung out together. You rarely saw one without the other. They didn't go to each other's homes that much, mostly because they were always playing football or wrestling or driving around town. Vern didn't have a car, but Morris had a little white Volkswagen that Ned Blankenbaker had bought for him. Olive laughed, remembering it. "Those great big boys weighed that car down so much when they were all in it, they looked like they were sitting on the street!" Vern knew both Olive and Ned. "Morris's dad had the music store and sometimes we'd go over and see him at the store. He was a solid, stocky man." Morris's half brother, Mike, was just a little kid then, a kid who idolized Morris.
    Like Morris, Vern belonged to the Lettermen's Club and was on the "A"
    Squad of the baseball and football teams, as well as turning out for Gabby Moore's wrestling squad. Vern and Morris were together so much that they actually could almost read each other's minds. "I knew what Morris was thinking and he knew what I was thinking." Vern smiled, remembering. "We could understand each other without talking. He knew if I was going to fight somebody, and he would walk up and stop me. And I'd walk up and stop him. We just knew each other. We knew each other."
    Morris was not only a tremendously strong athlete, he also had an easygoing nature and reasonable turn of mind. He could always see the other guy's point of view. When he saw that Vern, who kept so much inside, was about to blow, he could step in and calm him down with a word or two. Davis High School played in the AAA Football League and went up against Wenatchee and Richland, and, of course, Eisenhower. Vern played left halfback, Les Rucker played right halfback, and Morris played fullback. Dutch Schultz was their head coach, and Gabby assisted.
    Even though the three musketeers would scatter morris and Les to Washington State University, and Vern to Central gabby Moore was a hero to all three through their high school years, and after. Lives in a small town are closely interwoven. Almost everyone knew each other and secrets weren't really secrets. Back then, Gabby seemed like the last man in the world to have secrets. He was a straight shooter, a good teacher, and a good coach whose athletes looked up to him. And he didn't live by a double standard. If the boys couldn't drink and they couldn't he didn't drink. If he ordered his wrestlers to diet, he dieted right along with them. Vern Henderson and Morris Blankenbaker took his every word for gospel. The friendship between Morris Blankenbaker and Vern Henderson only became stronger as the years went by. Vern laughed as he recalled that he was "serious about every girl I ever met but not Morris," he said, suddenly sober. "I never saw him serious about anyone but Jerilee. Oh, he'd talk to girls at the movies or something, but Jerilee was the only one for him." Vern and Morris both went off to college, working evenings and summers to pay for it. Vern