Bro Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison on the 26th May 1907 in Winterset, Iowa. he and his family moved to Glendale California in 1914 and from a young age he worked helping in his father’s drugstore starting at the age of 12 and soon took on odd jobs including a delivery boy and working in an ice cream shop. It was in Glendale that he got the nickname “Duke” given to him by a local firefighter. It was During this period, Duke entered his first fraternal society, becoming an active member of the Order of DeMolay. This experience proved formative for Duke, as he would soon enter Freemasonry during adulthood. After 30 years as an A-list actor, Wayne craved camaraderie away from the limelight and found it in Freemasonry in 1970. He knew of the craft from his father, who was a Mason before him, and likely from his time in DeMolay. Bro Wayne’s time in lodge with his brethren became a sort of sanctuary, recalling that he felt his fame melted away. His Masonic lodge was Marion McDaniel Lodge No. 56 in Tucson, Arizona. After being raised a Master Mason, he soon completed the degrees of the York Rite, became a member of the Al Malaikah Shrine Temple in Los Angeles, and joined the 32nd-degree Scottish Rite Freemasonry. Bro Wayne passed to the Grand Lodge Above on the 11th June 1979 and is buried at the Pacific.
