MORSE, Mary 1948-2006

MORSE

Posted By: K. L. Kittleson
Date: 6/28/2006 at 19:54:29

Mary Morse, a former resident of Osage, Iowa, crossed to the other side on Friday, May 18th, 2006 at her home in Chicago, Illinois.

Her mother, Frances Morse, her brother Charles Morse, her life partner Joanne Bristol, her minister and close friends were with her. A memorial service was held in Chicago at the Grace United Methodist Church of Logan Square on Saturday, May 27th, 2006.

There will be a celebration of Mary's life on Wednesday, July 5th at the Osage United Methodist Church.

She was born on May 24, 1948, Mary grew up on a dairy farm near Osage and graduated from Osage Community High School in 1966. While she was a student at OCHS, Mary was busy after school with work on the family dairy farm. She took time for one club, GRA (Girl's Recreation Association), which elected her president her senior year. Members recognized her quiet leadership abilities, her modesty, and her unfailing sense of humor.

As a student in Medical Technology at the University of Iowa, Mary made new friends but remained close to her family and hometown friends. Her first job after becoming a medical technologist was in Great Falls, Montana. Even her trip moving to Montana was an adventure, as the gas pedal broke on her 1964 Valiant, and she had to lie on the floor and push the gas pedal while her mother drove.

Mary returned to Iowa City to work at the VA hospital, quitting to attend graduate school, but changed plans to travel around the United States with a friend. This was the first of many long trips Mary was to take.

Looking for more meaningful employment after this trip, Mary next found a job at a government hospital in Fort Defiance, Arizona, working with the Navajo Nation. She had a great deal of respect for her Navajo co-workers, but eventually the workload (90 minutes of work every hour by U.S. Government standards), the isolation, and an opportunity to travel to China in 1974 led her to leave the reservation and move to Iowa City, Iowa. Mary traveled to China, right after President Nixon's visit opened China to the West, and there she took over 800 slides, documenting a pre-westernized China that no longer exists.

In 1975, Mary settled in Chicago and worked for over 20 years as a Medical Technologist at several hospitals, including Cook County Hospital, Northwestern Hospital, and Illinois Masonic Hospital. She was active in her field, attending national conferences and even organizing a union including med techs at one hospital. Between her various jobs at hospitals, Mary was co-owner of a gym for women and traveled all over the USA, with additional visits to Mexico, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

In her life, she was a beekeeper, a bicyclist, a country dancer, an avid birder, a hiker and nature lover, an impassioned traveler, and a stamp collector.

When cancer struck her eight years ago, she never conceded to her illness. Her drive to establish support from all medical modalities, be it western, eastern, or in between, was remarkable. She was active in her local church and helped in their fundraisers, even when she was too ill to work at her job.

When her medical costs became a burden, Mary's friends organized a well-attended fundraising event to celebrate Mary and to help defray expenses that were not covered by insurance. This spring, when Mary's body was becoming weaker with her illness, her spirit remained strong, inspiring friends to organize a healing service in March. In her final days, Mary realized that, though the healing service didn't stop the ravages of cancer, it allowed her to be present at a celebration for her life and to share this celebration with her loved ones.

Throughout Mary's illness, her life partner Joanne Bristol remained steadfast in her commitment to Mary. Without the love, support and dedication of Joanne and many friends, Mary would not have been able to continue living at home. From February until her passing, her mother Frances Morse stayed with Mary and Joanne, nourishing them with her home-cooked food. Her sister Penney was there on weekends to visit Mary and to help with the upkeep of the household. In Mary's final week, her brother Charles joined Frances, Joanne, and numerous friend at her side, easing her passing.

Mary was preceded in death by her father Beverly Morse in 1998 and is survived by her life partner Joanne Bristol, her mother Frances Morse, her brother Charles Morse and his partner Jere Smith (St. Ansgar, Iowa), her sister Penney Morse (David Miller) of Milwaukee, Wisc., and her nieces, nephews, and great nieces and nephews: Melissa Morse (Mason City, Iowa), Dan, Pam, Lexus, Anthony, and Aurora Morse (St. Ansgar, Iowa), Mandy and Corey Mullenbach (Stacyville, Iowa), Casey Payne and I-Ping Yang (Taipei, Taiwan), and Elliott Payne and Lindsay Labahn (Minneapolis, Minn.) and her dog Smokey.

[ Original version posted on www.mcpress.com -- June 28, 2006 ]