Avis Ethelyn McGee Morse

Avis Morse, 90, a longtime resident of Ames and recently of Forsyth, Missouri, passed away Monday, December 11th after a brief illness. She had just celebrated her 90th birthday with her son, Timothy, and his family, at the LDS Church in Branson, Missouri on her birthday. A memorial service will be held at The Chapel, 224 Church Rd., Branson, Missouri at 4:30 PM, Saturday, December 16th. A family reunion will be held in Ames, Iowa in the spring with the internment of her ashes in the Ames City Cemetery next to her mother, father and brother. Born September 21, 1927 in Fredericksburg, Iowa. Her parents were Archie Sylvester Morse, a high school principal and superintendent of schools in northeast Iowa, and Evelyn Schroeder Morse, a homemaker who took up oil painting after retirement. Avis married Thomas D. McGee in 1948 and divorced in 1976. They raised a family of four children in Ames, Iowa. Avis also cared for her grandson as an infant and as a teenager. She was very proud of all four of her children and she believed they were her best accomplishment in life. Volunteer activities at this time included Camp Fire Girls Group Leader, Camp Fire Girls board member as President and Vice President, FISH, a Christian crisis help line, as President and Vice President, and Up With People. She was active in creating projects with her hands including knitting, beading necklaces, ceramics, and sewing dance costumes and tutus for her daughter's performances. Avis completed her undergraduate degree at Iowa State returning to school as an adult student to complete the degree she had begun before marriage. She received a B.S. in Science & Humanities with a major in Psychology on May 25, 1974. She also attended graduate classes at Iowa State. Avis was a musical person who studied piano throughout her lifetime. She took private piano lessons at Iowa State University and encouraged her children's musical interests. She played the church organ at St. David's Episcopal Church in Ames, Iowa. Avis' adult professional career included being the administrative assistant for the Chemistry and Entomology departments at Iowa State. Here she exercised her considerable computer skills. She was one of the few people who was able to type organic chemistry structures for her professors' papers. She was also instrumental in establishing the first procedure for documentation printing from Wilbur, the main frame computer, to the desktop PC. Avis was a deeply religious person and she loved the study of religions. During her lifetime she was an active member of Collegiate Presbyterian Church, St. David's Episcopal Church, and Collegiate United Methodist Church all in Ames. Finally, she joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of which she was a member at the time of her death. Genealogy was a special area of interest for her. Since 2002 Avis lived in Rock Away Beach, Missouri and Forsyth, Missouri. She worked at her computer every day keeping up with her grandchildren and children's activities on Facebook. She lived in her own apartment until September, 2017. She is survived by one daughter, Evelyn (Victor) DeLiso of Cleveland, Ohio; three sons: Timothy (Kathy) McGee of Ozark, Missouri, James (Anne) McGee of Lake Elmo, Minnesota, and Matthew (Sylvia) McGee of Ames, Iowa; grandchildren: Marco, Max, Dasha, Nikita, Jacob, Magdalene, Tina, Amanda, and Daniel; and one great-grandson, Justice McGee of Ames. She was preceded in death by an infant granddaughter, Appen in 1974; her father, Archie in 1987; her mother, Evelyn in 1996; her brother, Lee in 1997; and her grandson, John in 2012. In lieu of flowers, family members are asking that that memorials be made in memory of Avis to a charity of the donor's choice. Cremation under the direction of Adams Funeral Home, Ozark