Mary Louise Morse

Born in Beverly, Massachusetts to Urania L. (Rieker) Morse and Horace H. Morse, Mary was a precocious child and brilliant woman. She became a member of the National Honor Society at Beverly High School and continued to receive intellectual accolades throughout her academic career, including the Washington and Franklin Medal Award for Excellent in the Study of United States History from the Sons of the American Revolution in 1943. Upon graduation from Salem Teacher's College in 1947, Mary taught Latin for two years before attending Columbia University, where she earned a Master's Degree in British History. Subsequently, Mary worked as an editor for the American Institute of Physics in New York and as a free-lance editor in London before co-authoring the history of the Apollo Project, entitled The Apollo Spacecraft: A chronology, for NASA. Mary retired from the University of Houston, where she worked for twenty-two years as Assistant Director and Director of the office of Sponsored Programs. There, she assisted professors of all disciplines in writing their research grants. Mary was a voracious reader who appreciated a wide array of topics, including history, mysteries, science fiction, and Victorian literature.

Mary was a devout Catholic, confirmed as a child at St. Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church in Beverly, Massachusetts. For more than thirty years, she was a parishioner at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Houston, Texas, where she became a Eucharistic Minister to patients at the Texas Medical Center. Mary was also an active member of the Legion of Mary for more than twenty years.

A gentle, kind, and always gracious person, Mary was a loving daughter and aunt as well as a loyal friend and community volunteer. During the last eight years of her mother's life, Mary opened her home to her mother and they shared many joyful activities together, including regular attendance at the Houston Grand Opera. Mary was a board member, serving at various times as treasurer and president, with Literacy Advance of Houston, during its formative years and beyond, for several decades. She donated blood frequently for many years.

Mary was preceded in death by her parents, Urania and Horace Morse, her brother and sister-in-law, John R. Morse, Sr. and Katherine A. Morse of Beverly, Massachusetts, and her grand nephew, John Carl Morse. She is survived by her two nephews and their wives, Christopher R. Morse and Lou Soltys, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and John R. (Rick) Morse, Jr. and Linda J. (Frey) Morse, of Beverly, Massachusetts, two grand nieces, Katherine E. Morse and Anna Soltys Morse, and her friend and constant companion of more than thirty-four years, Wanda F. Woolums.

Arrangements were entrusted to Quattlebaum Funeral, Cremation and Event Center at Hillcrest Memorial Park, 6411 Parker Avenue, West Palm Beach, FL 33405, 561-833-4061. Visitation will be held at the Funeral Home on Thursday, January 29, 2015 from 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church, 345 South Military Trail, West Palm Beach, FL 33415, 561-683-3555, at 11:30 a.m. on January 29, 2015, with interment to follow in Woodlawn Cemetery, West Palm Beach, FL.

Expressions of sympathy and condolences may be made at www.Quattlebaum-FH.com

Please honor Mary's life by contributions to either Literacy Advance of Houston, 2424 Wilcrest, Ste. 120, Houston, TX 77042, 713-266-8777, or online at www.Literacyadvance.org or to The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration (AFTD), Radnor Station Building 2, Suite 320, 290 King of Prussia Road, Radnor, PA 19087, 267-514-7221, or online at www.theaftd.org.