Monitor Photo/Di Johnson
The Henderson County courthouse is adorned in shirts Oct. 3 at the kickoff of Domestic Violence Awareness Month in the county as a visual representation for women in the area who are or were subject to domestic violence. White shirts signify women who died because of violence; yellow, beige, red, pink, orange, blue, green, purple and black shirts represented survivors.

HENDERSON COUNTY–The East Texas Crisis Center (ETCC) and Henderson County Commissioners teamed up Oct. 3 to bring awareness to domestic violence and its effects on women and children. Commissioners signed a proclamation naming October Domestic Violence Awareness Month in the county that morning, and hand-decorated shirts in colors symbolizing women in all stages of abusive situations were hung from the trees in front of the courthouse.
At noon, a ceremony was held. ETCC Director of Outreach Della Cooper opened with statistics on domestic violence. She told the somber crowd that over 775,000 calls for domestic violence had come in between Oct. 2022 and Sept. 2023 and that more than 4,700 of those calls came to ETCC.
She went on to say what an invaluable tool the internet is in getting information out to victims in need. Women in abusive households now need only Google search to find resources in the area. The ETCC website is also tailored to women in need, offering live chat along with a 24-hour hotline to get help. The site also features a “safe escape” button, allowing users to safely exit the site quickly, also encouraging users to routinely clear browser history.
Cooper described reasons that women stay in these situations before giving the floor to domestic abuse survivor Tamara Blain. Blain gave an emotional speech about her journey in leaving her former partner, calling Cooper an angel in her life. Blain said she had not truly realized the abuse was happening to her until she began to speak to Cooper. Blain received services through ETCC and is now on the other side.
Next, Terry Dyer was asked to speak. Dyer is the mother of Kristi Morris, a young woman who tragically lost her life at the hands of her estranged husband, Matt Morris, in 2009 when she was just 22. Dyer said that Morris had grown up with an abusive father and was instrumental in their escape from him, going on to say that she’d always hoped her daughter would be in a better situation than she was. 
Unfortunately, the situation Kristi Morris found herself in turned out to be much worse. Dyer said she had left her husband and was living somewhere else with her children when he found her. She was putting her two-year-old daughter into her car seat when Matt Morris shot her, leaving her two young children with no mother. He then ran to a vacant neighboring home and turned the gun on himself.
Cooper spoke again, thanking Blain and Dyer for sharing their testimony before turning the festivities over to Henderson County Commissioner Wendy Spivey to read the proclamation, going on to state that domestic violence will not be tolerated in Henderson County. The shirt displays remained erected for all to see until 2 p.m.