Joseph H. Morton

Joseph Hubert “Joe” Morton passed away on July 9, 2026 after a long battle with cancer and not long after his 90th birthday. He was the youngest and last one living of 5 siblings including three sisters, Maxine Towles (Art), Kate Milstead (Tom), and Libby Meyers (Dr. Robert), and two brothers, Ralph (Barbara) Morton and Gene (Muriel) Morton.

The family grew up in Chattanooga on Tunnel Blvd and Joe attended the “old” Central High school on Dodds Avenue. Joe loved sports cars, racing and baseball, and was a very good athlete nearly his entire life. He was a trophy winning bowler and an excellent golfer with 6 “hole in ones” in his career. He was a right-handed golfer that putted “left-handed”.

Joe had many jobs in his younger days including as a grocery clerk, parking cars and pumping gas. He went to work for Western Electric in 1956, where he spent his career until retirement from AT&T in the mid-1980s, where he worked to bring the modern communication of telephone switch stations to rural areas all over Tennessee, Kentucky and the southeast United States.

He met Diane Kaplan at a bowling alley and was married for nearly 28 years with 2 kids, Jeff and Joe Jr. Jole became a key member of the sports boosters “chain gang” supporting many football games and wrestling matches over the years of his children playing sports at Hixson Jr. High and High School.

He worked for several more years at Plant Engineering Consultants until his final retirement where he spent his time playing golf, fishing, having fun and attending regular “meetings” at local Hixson haunts playing dominoes and cards.

After a divorce, he married Joyce Morton in the early 1990s and they spent nearly 30 years traveling, spending time with friends and family and taking care of their house, dogs and grandchildren before her death in November of last year.

Joe could be caring, and rowdy, stubborn, and loved to laugh and cut up. He was a big UT fan and was a hard worker in his day, being very handy, he could fix anything. He never met a stranger and loved his family and friends. He will be missed.

Joe is survived by his sons, Jeff and wife Kristi, and Joe Morton Jr., grandchildren Andrew Morton and wife Morgan, great granddaughter Finley and great grandson Anderson, granddaughter Haley and her husband, Luke Harvey and great grandson Pruitt, his stepdaughters Cricket Nelson and husband Rob, granddaughter Savannah and step daughter Tina Jones and husband Bryan; and many nieces, nephews and close friends.

Funeral Services for Joe will be held on Thursday July 16, 2026 at 1:00 PM EDT at the North Chapel of Chattanooga Funeral Home. The family will receive friends from 11:30 AM until service time at North Chapel. Interment will follow in Hamilton Memorial Gardens.

Arrangements are by the North Chapel of Chattanooga Funeral Home, Crematory, and Florist, 5401 Highway 153, Hixson, TN 37343.

Please share your thoughts and memories at www.chattanooganorthchapel.com