Virginia Lee Morris

Virginia Lee Slate Morris passed away on October 27th, 2023 in Norman Oklahoma, surrounded by her family, after a long battle against Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.  

Ginny was born on July 22nd, 1938 in Horton, Kansas to Mildred and Wheeler Slate. Her sister Linda was born 5 years later, and soon became one of Ginny’s closest friends. Wheeler’s work for the Rock Island Railroad took them to Dalhart, Texas, and then to El Reno, Oklahoma, where Ginny attended El Reno High School and was a member of the Bonita Marica Catta literary society and the Squaw Pep Club, where she was a cheerleader. Ginny was an avid reader all her life.

After graduating from high school in 1956, Ginny enrolled in Nurses Training at the University of Oklahoma, receiving her RN in 1959. She attended a Fourth of July party that year where her date got too inebriated to walk her home, so an OU medical student, Bill Morris, who’d been singing and playing the guitar that evening, offered to walk her home. They were married that Halloween in El Reno, and she worked for University Hospital upon graduation. 

Bill completed his residency in Tulsa, where Wendy and Noel were born before the young family moved to Tahlequah, Oklahoma in 1963 for Bill’s first office in private practice. In 1966, Bill opened an office in Lindsay, Oklahoma. Their youngest son Andrew was born that year. In Lindsay, Ginny was active as a Girl Scout leader for the Sooner Council (now Girl Scouts of Western Oklahoma) and learned to play bridge, which she enjoyed doing for the rest of her life.

The family moved to Hershey, Pennsylvania in 1972 for Bill to complete a residency in Orthopedics. The family drove across country, arriving while Hurricane Agnes was devastating Pennsylvania, to find that the family’s hotel rooms had been given away to local refugees who’d lost their homes to flooding. While in Hershey, Ginny worked at the Hershey Medical Center on the internal medicine ward.

In 1975 the family moved back to Oklahoma, where Bill joined the Chickasha Clinic. In Chickasha, Ginny was active in the Medical Auxiliary, the Methodist Women’s Circle Group, and the Women’s Service Center which she helped to found. She worked at the Women’s Service Center from 1981 to 1985, where she mentored young mothers in crisis.

As the kids grew up and entered high school, their home was never without animals: dogs, cats, guinea pigs, or birds, as Ginny’s great heart led her to adopt many strays her children brought home. At many times she had more pets than children. It was said by a friend that they would like to return as one of Ginny’s pets.

She returned to college at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, graduating in 1983 Summa Cum Laude.  While at USAO she was a member of the Pi Gamma Mu international honor society in social sciences. She was appointed to the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Community Mental Health Planning and Coordination Board by Governor George Nigh in April of 1985.

Bill and Ginny moved to Woodward in 1988, when she received her Masters Degree in Human Relations from the University of Oklahoma. While in Woodward she was active in the Woodward Education Foundation (part of the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence), and was appointed president in 1997.

In 2000 Ginny and Bill moved to Oklahoma City where they became active with St. Luke’s Methodist Church, their Sunday school class, and Esther Women. She volunteered for many projects including the Garage Sale fundraiser and Meals on Wheels. Ginny was involved in many other philanthropic organizations throughout her life.

Ginny was preceded in death by her parents, her sister Linda, and grandsons William and Albert. She is survived by her husband of 64 years, Bill, her three children Wendy Eddy (Nick) of Bethesda, Maryland, Noel (Kathy) of Norman, Oklahoma, and Andrew of Blanchard, Oklahoma, her grandchildren Brittany, Jordan, Scott, Grace, William, her great-granddaughter Millicent, and many nieces and nephews.

Ginny’s life was a story of service - to her husband, her children, her patients, her clients, her neighbors, and the several communities where they lived. She was the rock that held her family together, and they miss her terribly.