Morris, flagship of Destroyer Squadron 2 (DesRon 2), followed her shakedown with routine training schedules until the summer of 1941 when she joined the North Atlantic Patrol.

With the entry of the United States into World War II, she entered Charleston Navy Yard, where she was equipped with the first fire control radar for a destroyer.

Attached to Task Force 17 (TF 17), the destroyer sailed on 16 March for Noumea, and into her first major enemy engagement, the Battle of the Coral Sea.

Prior to the battle, she guarded the carriers of the task force as their planes struck at enemy shipping in Tulagi Harbor and in the Louisiade Archipelago.

In May 1943, Morris departed the southern Pacific and sailed north to support the capture and occupation of Attu Island and Kiska, the Aleutian end of the Japanese ribbon defense.

Thence she steamed to Kwajalein Atoll, where, while providing close fire support off Namur, she wiped out a Japanese counterattack force from an adjacent island.

Morris returned to combat in April 1944, when as a unit of the 7th Fleet she took part in all the western New Guinea landings, beginning with Hollandia.

Safely delivering her charges, transports with the first reinforcement groups aboard, on the 21st, she took up anti-aircraft station and, for several days, experienced meetings with the newest Japanese tactics: the kamikaze.

Morris then returned to Kerama Retto where temporary repairs somewhat corrected her demolished bow and subsequent draft of 18 feet 3 inches, her large protrusion of plating on the starboard side, and her damaged steering.

Struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 28 November, she was stripped of gear and sold to Franklin Shipwrecking on 2 August 1947, then resold to the National Metal and Steel Corporation in Los Angeles, California on 17 July 1949, where she was scrapped.