MORGAN, Mary Jane (SPARKS)

MORGAN, SPARKS, STEWART, DE THOUARS, LICHTY, SHIN

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 12/12/2013 at 02:02:35

Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
January 29, 1996

Obituary ~ Mary Jane (Sparks) Morgan
October 19, 1916 ~ January 16, 2004

MASON CITY — Mary Jane Sparks Morgan, 87, a former resident of Mason City, passed away Friday (Jan. 16, 2004) at the ManorCare Health Services in Highland Park, Ill.

She was born Oct. 19, 1916, in Oskaloosa, to the late Pearl William and Artemesia Morgan Sparks.

She received her undergraduate teaching degree from the University of Iowa and her master’s degree in U.S. history in 1967 from Drake University. She taught social studies in the Northwood-Kensett Junior High School in Iowa for 19 years.

Mary Jane loved to travel and when her son, Michael, graduated from high school, she took him and six other students on a tour of seven European countries. Later, with her brother and his wife, went on a three-week tour of the Soviet Union, and then enjoyed two weeks in Ireland. After retiring, Mary Jane and her friend, Alyce Stewart, went on several cruises, crossing the Atlantic, touring the Mediterranean and the Panama Canal.

During her lifetime, she was active in the Mason City Woman’s Club, a 50-year member of the Chapter GN of PEO, Phoenicians, OT study clubs and several bridge clubs.

Mary Jane enjoyed paying golf, until she was 80, and always enjoyed playing bridge with her friends.

She was also a past president of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority at the University of Iowa.

Surviving are two daughter, Linda Anne Morgan (Ray) de Thouars, of Englewood, Colo., and Barbara (Brett) Lichty, of Libertyville; her son, Michael (Angel) Morgan, of DeWitt; and grandchildren, Chad Morgan Lichty, and Lauren Faye Lichty and her companion, Donn Shin.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Jack Morgan in 1975, and her brother, Warren (Muriel) Sparks.

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Congregational Church in Mason City. Interment will be at a later date in Forest Cemetery in Oskaloosa, as her body was donated to the College of Medicine at the University of Iowa.

Memorial contributions can be made to either the Alzheimer’s Association, 919 N. Michigan Ave. #1100, Chicago, IL 60611-1676, or The American Heart Association, Dept. 77-3968, Chicago, IL 60678-3968.

Burnett-Dane Funeral Home, (847) 362-3009.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, December of 2013