When Rich Morrison took his girlfriend, Rose, to meet his mother at Ridgecrest Village in Davenport, the two didn’t know what to expect.
Rich had been married to his long-time wife until she passed away due to cancer. He found Rose before 2016. He wasn’t sure if his mother Phyllis, in her early 90s at the time, would be accepting of the new woman in his life. Neither was Rose, who said she was hesitant to meet Phyllis for the first time.
She quickly realized there was no need to be nervous.
“It was just instant the way they accepted me,” Rose said. “They were glad that he brought me and I always felt accepted and loved, like a member of the family.”
In 2016, Rich and Rose were married. And Phyllis was happy with it. Radiating love is what Phyllis loved to do in her life. She was a social butterfly of sorts, always happy to entertain and make friends. She was loving and accepting of everyone, which her son Rich and his wife Rose talked fondly about.
In fact, Phyllis and her husband, Donald, would throw big parties on their houseboat in Clear Lake with a wide range of friends that they met over the years.
“Three to five couples would join them on the boat and they would cruise around the lake, looking at hotspots,” Rich said. “On holidays like the Fourth of July, they were out in the middle of the lake during fireworks. All the people that went out with them are people that they knew from when dad was working, or they met at the lake, or through church and other activities they had done.”
After spending time working as a secretary at the Air Force base in Garden City, Kan., during World War II, she moved to Washington, Iowa, and worked as a bank teller.
It was there where she met Donald Morrison through mutual high school friends. They hit it off instantly and were married on November 23, 1949. They spent much of their adult lives moving to different places as Donald earned promotions working as a manager of GMAC. They had two sons, Richard and Bob.
Phyllis and Donald moved to Clear Lake after Donald retired and lived there for nearly 30 years. The best part of living in Clear Lake was taking people out on the houseboat and watching their family grow.
“They really loved to entertain and they really loved their grandkids,” Rich said. “They taught the kids how to fish, how to paddleboat and how to be safe on the water. They did spend a lot of time with them when they could.”
At age 96, on Sept. 7, Phyllis passed away due to COVID-19 at Ridgecrest Village in Davenport.
When Phyllis was struggling with COVID-19 complications in her Davenport nursing home, it was family who put a smile on her face.
Rich’s nephews were allowed to visit Phyllis and brought in a laptop. She talked to grandchildren and members of her family through the camera.
“He was there for hours doing this,” Rich said. “I think that was the highlight of the year for her. Being able to talk to all of these kids she had helped over the years.”
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