Barbara Lee Morgan Obituary - Visitation & Funeral Information

Barbara Lee Morgan It is by no coincidence Barbara Morgan, a renaissance woman of the human condition, was a mother to all who knew her. She gravitated toward any opportunity to aid in others' psychological, emotional, and intellectual growth and well-being, and continually found herself returning to the helping professions. Her compassion, nurturing and motivation to help others may have been fostered early in life as she would recount feeling pride watching her father, Dr. Luther Watson, carrying his black bag while making house calls as a Physician in the 1950s. She would recollect returning home after weekends on the family cabin cruiser at Put-in-Bay or from playing with the Shephard's kids next door with her sister, Deanna, and admiring the warmth of their home created by her mother, Bette. Barbara was influenced by their kindness, by their generosity and became a woman who was not only witty, fun, mischievous and creative, but immensely caring. All things she did, she did as a mentor, a teacher, a coach, and a counselor and she let life take her wherever she was needed. Though she began life in Bay Village, Ohio on April 25th, 1950, life brought her to Fort Lauderdale, Florida where she graduated Stranahan High School in 1968. Soon, she began selling advertising for the Chronicle and Herald in Georgia, then became a job placement clerk at an employment agency. She took courses at Dale Carnegie, shaping what would become her astute leadership and perceptive communication skills. Barbara did as she was called to do; she tended bar, assembled airplane gauges at Aerosonics in Clearwater, and served as a housekeeper at the Gasparilla Inn on Boca Grande Island where she would commute to the old Hilton Head hotel in South Carolina. Eventually, she settled in Dunedin, Florida and began a Dental Assistant career at Sheppard Dental School where she excelled at four-handed dental assisting, graduating at the top of her class. Her congeniality, finesse for connecting with people, and kind heart were apparent in her valedictorian address which was met with cheers and applause from the packed auditorium. It was during these years that Barbara dated Tom Morgan, the man who became the love of her life, and on February 27th 1982 she added "loving wife" to the top of the long list of hats she wore. To know Barbara Morgan was to know she was woman who could do everything, and in 1983 she became a homemaker and mother to three boys: Kevin Matthew whom she called Kev, Brian Christopher or B'ri, and Scott Nicholas was her Scotty. Motherhood matched well with her quirky character, unflagging sense of humor and spirit for overcoming challenges. She pursued and acquired an extensive knowledge of Autism at a time when very little was known, and incorporated it beautifully in being a teacher, a mentor, coach and counselor to her sons. She used her challenges as a mother to become informed and educated, and with her kind heart was led to a career in education as a Special Education Teacher's Assistant at Pinellas County schools for 14 years. During this time, entering her home could easily find you walking into a living room littered with poster boards, cut-outs, coloring pens, clear contact sheets (whole and in pieces), scattered like snowflakes and interspersed with Velcro hooks and buttons and Barbara would be somewhere in the thick of it arguing with the Elmer's glue bottle and glue sticks for floor space, scheming and designing teaching aids to give children with cognitive and learning disabilities a chance at education. It would be easy to say that she brought her work home with her, but truly, the work was simply part of who she was, teacher and mother being inseparable from Barbara herself. She retired from the Pinellas School System, but her efforts still live in some of the students she worked with to this day. She spent the remainder of her life at home, enjoying her children and three grandchildren with the help of her trusty IPad and Facebook, and in person when the opportunity presented itself with family visits. The special relationship Barbara shared with her three grandchildren was an unbreakable bond of cherished love, each one holding a piece of her heart. Throughout her life she exhibited the tendencies of caring, nurturing, and helping those she knew. She delighted herself in sending surprise gifts to her grandchildren and making sure her children never went without, all whilst happily putting herself last. Her compassion, an eclectic and rounded knowledge of the human condition, and an unflagging sense of humor were the hallmarks of her character. They replaced the hard knocks, the surgeries she endured across the span of her life, and the challenges met as she lived her life to the fullest. This is the legacy she leaves and for which she will be most remembered. The world lost a great lady this day. The influence of her character lives through all the people she came in contact with, children and adults alike. When people think of her, at some point they will find themselves reminiscing, find suddenly they are smiling if not outright bursting out in laughter over her wit or turn of phrase on whatever was being discussed. This is the culmination of the legacy she left to us all when she passed away, surrounded by her 'guys' on May 23rd, 2017.

Barbara Lee Morgan

April 25, 1950 - May 23, 2017