JoAnn Morris
Surrounded by loved ones, JoAnn Morris, 58, passed away peacefully on April 3, 2023, following a long battle with pulmonary hypertension as a result of Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia. JoAnn had a tenacious will for life, persisting in the face of her progressive disease despite many setbacks and obstacles. Everyone experienced her sunshine in a unique and beautiful way, and her warmth was impossible to ignore.
Fontana, CA was made infinitely brighter when JoAnn made her entrance into the world on July 13, 1964, as the youngest daughter of Joan and Earl Morris. She moved around with her family from place to place as a child, creating colorful and cherished memories with her parents and five siblings. In Starkville, MS she showed her spark of adventure, often wandering out into the neighborhood when she was just a toddler, scaring her mother half to death and forcing her older siblings to be tasked with finding her. Joan was in fact so worried that she found it necessary to put a harness on JoAnn and secure her to a clothesline so she wouldn’t escape while the laundry was being tended to.
In Prosser, WA, young JoAnn loved to watch the lights of the passenger trains go by at the back of their home and climb the family’s peach tree. At this house, much to her mother’s relief, JoAnn was kept safe in the yard by a fence. Very early in her life, passions for camping, roadtripping, swimming, rollerblading, traveling, board games, baking, crafting, and the great outdoors were fostered as she was able to do these things with her family frequently. JoAnn learned piano at a young age and was a classically trained operatic soprano. As a teenager, she would climb to the roof of the house with her little brother Alan where they would sing “Top of the World” by The Carpenters at the top of their lungs. Later, she would sing this song to her girls, often during the commute to school in the morning.
In fact, her daughters, Courtney and Krissi Morris, were often woken up in the mornings to the sound of JoAnn belting “Let the Sunshine In” by The Fifth Dimension. Her girls were lucky enough to be raised by the silliest, quirkiest, wackiest single mother who they were happy to have all to themselves. When her girls were little, the enormously hardworking and dedicated JoAnn would regularly travel the two hours each way to and from Idaho State University where she would eventually earn her Bachelor of Arts degree in Early Childhood Education.
Following her college graduation, the little family of three moved from Twin Falls, ID to West Jordan, UT where JoAnn found her place as a sixth-grade teacher at Columbia Elementary School. Miss Morris was the favorite teacher of hundreds of students over the span of her career, infusing her special quirky flair and often youthful humor into her teaching. Every year, her students would take part in a different Shakespeare play produced entirely by JoAnn. She often brought boomwhackers, drums, and chime bars into her classroom, and enjoyed sharing her passion for music with her students.
JoAnn’s affinity for children was further nurtured when she was blessed with four grandsons. She was present for the birth of each one, and each held a special place in her heart. For the last several years of her life, she lived with and helped raise grandsons Maddox and Phelix and was able to visit with Oliver and Oscar frequently. Each of her grandsons will remember Grandma Nann as a place of safety, comfort, calm, laughs, pranks, treats, kindness, and love. They miss her so dearly.
Even in recent years as her disease progressed, JoAnn was careful to never miss a family holiday party, a recital, or a graduation, for anyone in her family, close or extended. She would show up toting her portable oxygen tank and the little black bag containing her continuous-pump medication (lovingly named “Herman,” after the famous Munster), happy to get some cake and hugs. JoAnn drew great comfort from the love of her family, and especially from the love of her Savior and the gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
JoAnn is preceded in death by her loving parents Joan and Earl Morris. She is survived and missed by her daughters Courtney Morris (Bryant Jackson), and Kristina Morris; grandsons Maddox Avalos, Oliver Shull, Phelix McLeod-Morris, and Oscar Shull; big sisters Debra Morris and Sandra Weaver; big brother Perry Morris; baby brothers Alan Morris and Trevor Morris (Patricia); and many, many nieces, cousins, relatives, and friends. To know JoAnn is to love her, and she is so very, very loved.
A funeral service will be held at 11:00 am, on Friday, April 14, 2023, at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6111 Birch Lane in Nampa, with visitation at the church beginning at 10:00 am. Burial will follow at the Meridian Cemetery in Meridian.
To watch the funeral service, please visit: https://vimeo.com/815425953
Arrangements are under the direction of Bowman Funeral Parlor of Garden City.