Funeral Details

Kate Becker Morrison, age 92

Kate Becker Morrison died at home on February 11, 2025. The cause of death, diagnosed 5 short weeks earlier, was cancer of the pancreas.
On the morning that the diagnosis was delivered, admittedly in a morphine-induced euphoria, she exclaimed: “Everyone will come home! We’ll have one long celebration!”
And come home they did. She spent the next 4 weeks, until she could no longer get out of bed, presiding over family meals with some combination of her 4 children and their spouses. Grandchildren and great grandchildren, nieces and nephews and their offspring poured in, and always, repeatedly, her sister Jane. Her days were filled with reading and returning the letters, texts and calls that flooded in from friends, former students, and family everywhere.
It was a beautiful end to a life beautifully lived.
Kate Laura Becker was born in Chicago IL on May 23, 1932, to James H. and Hortense Koller Becker. She was the second of three girls: Jane, Kate and Elizabeth. Kate adored her little sister, Lizzy, who lost her sight at the age of 3, and died of cancer by the age of 11, when Kate was only 14. This loss gave Kate an early introduction to sorrow. It also taught her from a young age to value love and human connection as life’s most precious gifts--ones you can never take for granted.
Joy came into her life 5 years later in the unexpected form of William L. Morrison. He was not the man of her dreams (who was tall, dark, and Jewish, probably from the East Coast) but fresh of face and light of voice, a rube from South Dakota with a twinkle in his eye, a labyrinthine mind, and a surprising gift for language.
Theirs was a union that defied all odds but came to feel inevitable. They built a home together on the South Side of Chicago that reflected their values and their passions. Both avid readers, there were only 2 rooms in the house at 1125 E. 48th St. (the home they lived in for close to 60 years) that were not filled with books. The walls were covered with the art of their children, friends, and eventually their own beautiful paintings. The halls rang with music, love of which Kate instilled in every one of her children. A succession of passionately adored dogs and cats ranked no lower than the home’s bipeds.
Most of all, the union of Kate and Bill produced the four children who would one day come together to care for and minister to their mother night and day under the compassionate guidance of Unity Hospice nurse, Michelle Stewart. There can be no higher tribute to Kate Morrison’s own capacity to love and nurture others.
Kate spread her gentle wisdom far beyond the walls of that house, to touch the lives of so many friends, and the legions of students she reached through her long career in the Lower School at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools.
Kate is survived by and will be sorely missed by her sister, Jane Becker Colman; her four children, Ann Morrison (David Roth), Ellen Morrison, Sarah Morrison (William Rogers), William B. Morrison (Laurie Olinder); her grandchildren, Sara Ellison (Colin Freeland), Grace Roth, Laurel Roth and Daniel Roth; her great grandchildren, Dashiell, Finn, Hazel, Ezra, Juniper, and Sterling; as well as many nieces, nephews, cousins and friends
Her greatest legacy will lie in the number of lives she affected through her generosity, her patient guidance, and the remarkable example she set of a life lived well in relation to others and to the world.
Service Tuesday, February 16, 11:00 AM, at KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation, 5039 South Greenwood Avenue Chicago, IL 60615. Interment is private. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to The Greater Chicago Food Depository or WFMT’s Bach to School program. To attend the funeral livestream, please visit our website. Arrangements by Chicago Jewish Funerals - Skokie Chapel, 847.229.8822, www.cjfinfo.com