east of Kooskia. The family had little money, and father John Taylor spent time as a traveling preacher in Colorado and across Oregon. Lena Taylor would often be heard singing on her way to school. On May 2, 1915, Lena married Elmer Morse, a local woodworker from Wallace, Idaho.<ref name=Bedoian>Liner notes by Jim Bedoian for the CD Lee Morse — A Musical Portrait, p. 3.</ref> She gave birth to a son, Jack, in 1916. Lena, however, had a desire for a career as a singer and separated from Morse in 1920. Early career Her first professional notice came around 1918, when she performed under the name "Mrs. Elmer Morse" at a local silent movie house. During the next few years she played shows largely in small Pacific Northwestern towns such as Spokane, Washington and Chewelah, accompanying herself on guitar. Lee Morse's family was involved in politics as well as music. In 1920 her father was elected as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. Morse accompanied her father to San Francisco and, while there, performed in a convention at the Hotel St. Francis. As a result, she was noticed by Will King, a famous vaudeville producer of the day, who subsequently signed her to a contract. Morse seized the opportunity for a career in the vaudeville of the West Coast. She left Kooskia—and her husband Elmer—behind for good. Her brother Glen later observed, "she left home when we were barefoot and had the best suite in a Portland hotel when I saw her again." In 1921, Morse began working in musical revues under Kolb and Dill. In 1922, she joined the Pantages circuit with a 15-minute act titled Do You Remember One Small Girl a Whole Quartet. One reviewer observed "she sings a baritone 'Silver Moon,' then swings into a bass with 'Asleep in the Deep' and finishes in a soprano with 'Just a Song of Twilight.'" In November 1922 the reviewer for Variety noted "She gives the impression of a male impersonator, yodels rather sweetly, sings the 'blues' number better than the majority." In 1923, Morse won a role in the touring version of the revue Hitchy Koo. The cast included star Raymond Hitchcock, as well as Marion Green, Irene Delroy, Al Sexton, Busby Berkeley, and Ruth Urban. She next performed in the Shubert revue Artists and Models, which opened on Broadway on August 20, 1923. Music, stage, and