NEW PALESTINE, IN
Story has it when Mary Lou Dickens was born she had pneumonia, and her doctor said she wouldn’t survive. But she did. That was Youngstown, Ohio, November 3, 1941.
Mary Lou also survived the chaotic poverty of her childhood. On her own she would walk to church, sometimes dragging her 3 younger siblings with her. Through church she met Harry Morgan, who she married 3 days after her 18th birthday. Together they built a life full of adventures, friendships, family, service, and faith.
Besides raising their 4 children—Robert, Carol, Sharon and Jane—Mary Lou and Harry took in homeless teens Greg and ‘Ski; fostered Marlene; hosted exchange students Jose, Emma, Takako and Hiromi; and opened their home to others in need, from family to friends of family. Mary Lou was always good with kids and teens: she listened, but she also had rules.
Her adventures included living on Guam for 2 years where she survived the 183-mph winds of super typhoon Karen November 1962. Back in the states she set up home in Alabama, Illinois and Maryland, wherever Harry’s work for the Air Force took him. She backpacked on the Appalachian trail, camped all over the United States, and camped and canoed the lakes and rivers of Ontario and the eastern seaboard of Canada.
After Harry retired, they moved to American Samoa for 2 years. There Mary Lou learned to sing national songs in Samoan, participated in the community college theatre production, and volunteered at the hospital. After Samoa, they eventually settled in Indiana in 1988. Everywhere they lived, she and Harry found a church home and were active in its ministries, but particularly so at St James Lutheran Church in Greenfield, Indiana. Mary Lou also sang alto in the church choir and in the Greenfield Community Choir for many years until health problems hindered her.
When Harry passed in March 2019, they’d been married almost 60 years. Mary Lou then moved in with her daughter Jane and son-in-law Thomas in Greenfield, eventually opting for winters in Shoreacres, Texas, with daughter Carol and son-in-law Gary, and summers with Jane and Thomas. She continued to battle health issues, and her doctors encouraged her to sing to help strengthen her lungs.
Christmas morning, December 25, 2023, after a series of hospitalizations and rehab for multiple issues including pneumonia, Mary Lou Morgan passed away from this life and reunited with Harry in the heavenly choir, 82 years after her doctors’ predictions she wouldn’t survive infancy.
She leaves behind son Robert Morgan and daughter-in-law Lisa, daughter Carol Morgan-Gohlke and son-in-law Gary, daughter Sharon Johnson and son-in-law Rick, and daughter Jane Hale and son-in-law Thomas. Grandchildren are Katie Sechrist, Bethany Ferrell, Zoe Johnson, Alex Johnson, Timothy Johnson, Courtney Hale, Cameron Hale, Juliann Simmons, Matthew Johnson, and Trevor Hale. Great-grands are Kaylen and Jenson Sechrist; Ethne, Harrison, and Oliver Ferrell; and Renee, Sadie, and Maggie Johnson. Also surviving her are sister Karen Dickens and brother James Dickens and many nieces and nephews. She also leaves behind friends from St James Lutheran Church and Light of Christ Lutheran Church in La Porte, Texas. She was predeceased by parents George and Mary Dickens, brother George Dickens, husband Harry Morgan, and infant grandson Daniel Johnson.
Memorial services will be January 5, 2024, 3PM, at St James Lutheran Church, Greenfield, Indiana, and January 7, 2024, 12PM, at Light of Christ Lutheran Church, La Porte, Texas. By her request, there will be laughter and stories and singing.
