As the Final Four frenzy captivates America, Fayette County’s Latonya McMorris is transported back to her glory days on the court.
In 2001, she was one of the stars of the Women’s Final Four, helping the upstart Lady Bears of Missouri State University achieve sporting immortality.
Finishing in the top four of the NCAA Division women’s championship – along with Connecticut, Purdue and Notre Dame – earned her and the other Lady Bears a place in the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.
"It was the coolest experience," said McMorris, who has lived in metro Atlanta for the better part of 20 years.
At 46, she hasn’t picked up a basketball in years, though she’s in front of the television this time every year for the Final Four.
McMorris has great respect for the game.
She says it changed the trajectory of her life and taught her the skills she needed to have a successful career in retail, buy a home, and live out her passion for travel.
McMorris said she knew at an early age that she wanted a different life than she had growing up in a small community on Chicago’s southside, without the support of a stable family.
Credit: Courtesy of Latonya McMorris
Credit: Courtesy of Latonya McMorris
Basketball, which she excelled at during high school and college, was McMorris’ “superpower” and allowed her to escape from an environment of drugs, crimes and financial struggles.
With a full-ride basketball scholarship, she was the first in her family to graduate high school and college. She attended two community colleges and Missouri State University, then Southwest Missouri State, earning an associate degree in science and bachelor’s degrees in psychology and marketing, in addition to her dozens of athletic awards.
After college, McMorris said she considered extending her career by playing overseas since there was no Women’s National Basketball Association at the time.
Instead, she landed a job with retail giant Walmart, her first and only employer as an adult.
Twenty-one years and umpteen store moves and promotions later, she now oversees seven Walmart stores from Decatur to East Point, employing about 3,000 people.
Her success at Walmart, she says, is rooted in the lessons she learned on the basketball court -- leadership, teamwork and perseverance.
"I found a career with Walmart and unexpectedly fell in love with it," McMorris said. "I realized that working at Walmart gave me the opportunity to inspire others and enable them to achieve dreams they never thought possible, especially in the inner-city stores."
McMorris’s impact extends beyond the aisles of Walmart. She’s deeply involved in the communities in which she’s worked for Walmart.
Daniel Farr, founder of Project Help, said McMorris worked tirelessly to help cultivate his group’s vision of helping the homeless.
“She was not someone who would just come for the event,” he said. “She would be out there at 5 and 6 in the morning, setting up tables and tents and doing anything that needed to be done. She did it just out of love for people and what we were trying to do.”
Farr said that over two years, hundreds, if not thousands, of homeless people were helped, and McMorris was able to connect the organization with some needed resources.
"It wouldn’t have been done without Latonya and her love and passion for helping," he said.
McMorris, representing Walmart, ensured that the city of Hampton in Henry County received a tanker truck of fresh water it needed during a horrific storm that passed through the area.
McMorris said she treasures a resolution presented by Hampton’s then-mayor, thanking her for her help.
"When I think about a store, I think it’s not only about the store but how you embrace the community and enhance the environment," she said.
For herself, McMorris hopes to retire with Walmart and stay in metro Atlanta.
“I couldn’t have dreamed my life would be this way,” she said.
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