The scarlet carpet swept around the east wing of the museum and stopped at the gray underbelly of the U-505 submarine. There, the ladies and gentlemen who had been handed flutes of Taittinger as they emerged from their cars, met eye to eye with the honored guests of the evening.

Beyond, along a lagoon sparkling under the Saturday night sky, the guests of the Columbian Ball at the Museum of Science and Industry draped themselves at the foot of the south portico stairs. Champagne glasses and pate knives, clinking crystal to crystal and sterling to china, punctuated hushed conversation.

And then, ushered in by white-gloved waiters, 550 of Chicago`s old guard and social elite strolled down ``Yesterday`s Main Street,`` turned left at the coal mine and sat down to a seafood terrine swimming in dill-avocado sauce while overhead a bi-plane and F-104 Starfighter dangled on steel cords from the ceiling.

The ball, the seventh such annual affair, is the museum`s sole fundraising event this year.

Inside the mother-of-pearl-bathed Rosenwald Court, where Stanley Paul`s ubiquitous orchestra serenaded diners and dancers, no one seemed to be paying any mind to fiscal details.

Hope McCormick, the former state legislator and Illinois Republican national committeewoman, fluttered about. When she found one too many place settings at her table but could not find a waiter, she simply rose and did the job herself. ``I`ve got two hands. Who needs a waiter,`` she noted as she breezed by to deposit a petite herbed roll, water goblet and handful of sterling onto a wooden bench just off the dining area.

Marge Hartigan, wife of the attorney general, dipped her fork into her trio of veal medallions and remarked that indeed this would be one hectic autumn for all things social. ``It`s every weekend from here on in. Maybe by January we can get a breather.``

While the army of waiters rounded the tables serving jicama and bibb salads, each garnished with a magenta Vanda orchid, ball chairman Vernile Morgan delighted in her fait accompli.

``Isn`t it just magic?`` she asked. ``I crossed my fingers and started my prayers last February, and don`t you know today`s perfect.``

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1987-09-17/features/8703100623_1_waiters-science-and-industry-diners

As a young woman, Vernile Morgan was the voice of fear on the radio in the Chicago area, and later she became a civic booster whose works included helping youth organizations and museums.

"She was a well-known radio actress ... and apparently was in a lot of the mystery stories," said her stepdaughter, Heather Black. "She apparently was very good at letting out a good scream and at one point was offered a contract to go to Hollywood."

Instead, she became a kindergarten teacher for a short time before marrying and taking on a host of civic projects.

A native of Oak Park, she graduated in the mid-1930s from Rosary College, where she majored in speech and French and later studied drama at Northwestern University.

Of her radio career, she wrote in an autobiography that her voice range allowed her to play a girl of 16 or a woman of 80.

"One glamorous show I was fortunate to be involved in was WGN's important show of `Curtain Time.' It was done in formal attire on stage, an audience show done in the Tribune Theatre while being recorded," she wrote. "It really was my first big moment in my radio career."

But rather than going to Hollywood, she stayed in the area, taking a position as a teacher in Oak Park before meeting and marrying Graham J. Morgan, retired chairman of the United States Gypsum Co., Black said.

Black, who was raised by Mrs. Morgan and considers her her mother, said the marriage to her father allowed Mrs. Morgan to pursue civic activities.

"She very much enjoyed nurturing young talent and helping young people to have opportunities," Black said.

Her work included serving on the president's council of the Museum of Science and Industry, the women's boards of the United Service Organizations, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago, Dominican University and Field Museum, Black said.

Mrs. Morgan was the mother-in-law of Chicago Mayor Michael Bilandic, said Black, who is his widow and later remarried to Richard Black.

Survivors include her grandson, Michael Bilandic.

Visitation will be held from noon to 1:30 p.m. Thursday in Holy Name Catholic Cathedral Chapel, 30 E. Superior St., followed by a mass in Holy Name Cathedral, 735 N. State St.

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tmaxwell@tribune.com