In loving memory of
Frederica Ann Morrison
March 22, 2007
Frederica Ann "Fritzi" Morrison, age 97 of 1845 Jersey, died Thursday, March 22, 2007 at 11:10 am at the home in which she was born.
She was born December 8, 1909 in Quincy, IL the daughter of Otto A. and Anna Kespohl Mohrenstecher. On March 22, 1933 she married John A. Morrison in Quincy, IL, and he preceded her in death on December 6, 1999.
Fritzi was enraptured by drawing, painting and music and began lessons at an early age. Wherever she resided, singing was her joy. She most loved Puccini arias classic French and German light opera and theater music. She appeared in musical entertainments and concerts. A long interest in writing, particularly poetry, prompted her enrollment in the University of Pittsburgh's writing classes, when her husband was a member of the university faculty between 1961 and 1965.
However, because of her interest in pictorial art, she devoted three years at Mrs. Dow's School, Briar Cliff Manor New York with classes in oil portraiture and bi-monthly "con-cours" by exalted portraitist, Charles W. Hawthorne; a year in Washington D. C. attending the King-Smith Studio School; two years at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She spent the fall term in the University of Chicago Art Department before her marriage in the spring of 1933.
Though having worked in a variety of media, watercolor with its challenging spontaneity had completely captivated her. Fritzi had attended workshops by acclaimed artists, but it was in the watercolor classes of Eliot O'Hara that she realized her full ability as a watercolorist.
Participating in juried regional, national, international and traveling exhibitions and invitationals, she had received honors and awards. She was a Signature Member of three watercolor organizations: the American (A.W.S.) , and the Philadelphia (P.W.C.S.), the two oldest in the country, and the Midwest (M.W.S.). She was made a life member of Quincy Great River Watercolor Society.
Her paintings emphasize abstract qualities depicting mood and the feel of time and place. She worked on the spot from memory, imagination, or combinations of two or three, and she painted directly without preliminary pencil sketch.
Fritzi's watercolors have been purchased for the permanent collections of the St. Louis Art Museum, The Art Gallery of Western Illinois University, the Whatcom Museum of History and Art in Bellingham, Washington; Dartmouth College Art Gallery, Hanover, New Hampshire; and the City Hall of Quincy, Massachusetts. Locally, the Quincy Art Center owns seven of her paintings, one an Illinois Arts Council Purchase Grant and a McGavran Purchase Award. Also included are three paintings from the Irwin Foundation and three from the book on Quincy architecture. A watercolor of long gone C. B. & Q Railroad Station was donated to the Gardner Museum of Architecture and Design in Quincy. She had more than sixty solo exhibitions.
She was a member of the Unitarian Church in Quincy.
Survivors include her son, Ian W. Morrison and wife Helen, Henniker, NH; 3 grandchildren, John W. Morrison and wife Sloane Shevrin, Windham, ME, Elizabeth Morrison and husband Scott A. Monsma, Madison, WI, Kate Morrison Bagin and husband Christian, Pittsburgh, PA: 3 great grandchildren, Owen S. and Colin J. Monsma, both of Madison, WI, and Beatrix G. Bagin, Pittsburgh, PA. She was also preceded in death by her parents.
Services will be Tuesday, March 27, 2007 at 11:00 am in the Unitarian Church with Dr. Rob Manning officiating. Visitation will be Monday from 4-6 pm at the Hansen-Spear Funeral Home. Private burial will be in Woodland Cemetery. Memorials made to the Unitarian Church, Quincy Public Library, or Quanada in her name would be appreciated.