Sue Ann Mackay Morris died peacefully on September 14, 2016 at the Maplewood Senior Living Community in Darien, ending her 13-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Sue Ann Morris, 78, died Sept. 14.
Born on April 28, 1938 in Fort Fairfield, Maine to John and Christine Mackay, her family moved to Simsbury when she was 11 years old. Sue graduated Simsbury High School in 1956 as Class Treasurer balancing her time between Glee Club and earning varsity letters in field hockey, basketball and cheerleading.
Sue was a member of Daughters of the American Revolution, having traced her lineage back to Plymouth Colony governor, William Bradford. She attended Chamberlain School of Retailing in Boston and the Hartford College for Women.
She worked at G.Fox & Co. before joining Hamilton Standard in Windsor Locks where she met her husband, Frederick. They wed on June 18, 1960. The couple settled in Granby, fostering an ongoing love of travel and the outdoors through annual camping trips with family and friends to North Truro on Cape Cod.
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— This obituary previously was published by the Hartford Courant.
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Sue and Fred welcomed their children Jeffrey in 1966, John in 1968 and Jennifer in 1972. With the addition of “Jenny-Poo-Darling,” Sue and family returned to Simsbury, where she then resided for over 40 years. Sue was a wonderful wife and mother.
She taught her children how to knit and cook and play infield-taking pride in her enthusiastic cheering at little league and soccer games. She loved cooking and holiday gatherings.
Her annual Thanksgiving meal always included signature dishes such as homemade coffee-can bread, “Mackay fruit salad,” chocolate cream pie, and soft oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. An athlete for her entire life, she was an active bowler, tennis player and avid golfer, averaging over one hundred rounds per year, including one in which she shot a hole-in-one.
She was a member of the “18 Holers” at Simsbury Farms, and SNEWGA. Sue loved music and dancing, often impromptu and silly. She was never without a craft project or novel, she meticulously completed and framed hundreds of unique cross-stitch and floral needlepoints while having read thousands of paperbacks across every genre.
She will forever be remembered for her favorite timely pleasure-a cat-nap on the open-air porch, listening to the surrounding rainstorm. Sue spent her final 13 years waging a losing battle against the consuming shroud of Alzheimer’s at senior living communities.
She was an inaugural resident at Maplewood in Darien, where she starred in promotional videos and choir performances. While the disease ate away at her memory, it never stole her personality, and she will be remembered as a smiling, happy and engaging presence to all that recently knew her, especially when they realize that her clicks, taps and hums were distillations of lifelong mannerisms and prosaisms like, “Home again, home again, jiggity-jig!”
She is survived by her children, Jeffrey (Lori) Morris of San Rafael, CA, John (Karen) Morris of Mason, OH, Jennifer (Dan) Anderson of Darien, and ex-husband, Frederick K. Morris of Granby. Adored as grandmother by Ellen and Violet Morris; Tyler, Justin, Garrett, and Caroline Morris; and Cole, Arden and Luke Anderson.
She was loved as a devoted sister by oldest and youngest brothers Jack (June) and David (Deeg) Mackay of Simsbury and older brother Stephen (Peg) of New Hampshire.
The family would like to express their gratitude to Maplewood at Darien for the love and support their mother received by asking for tax deductible donations to be made in their mother’s name to the Maplewood Senior Living HEART Foundation, Inc., 1 Gorham Island, Westport, CT 06880, Attention: Kristin Hocker, Foundation Director. The Foundation, a 501 c3 non-profit organization, provides financial support to Maplewood Senior Living associates and their families facing extenuating life circumstances.
Memorial services will be held at 11 a.m., Friday, September 30 at Simsbury’s First Church of Christ, 689 Hopmeadow St. Celebration lunch will be served at the Simsbury Inn, 397 Hopmeadow St., immediately following the service.