Grace Eleanor Morris

Grace Eleanor Morris died quietly at home in Chanute, Kansas, on August 11, 2018 surrounded by family. The funeral service will be held at 1pm on Saturday, August 18, 2018 at Westside Church of the Nazarene in Olathe, KS, with graveside service immediately following at Oak Lawn Memorial Gardens in Olathe. A reception for family & friends will be hosted at Westside Church of the Nazarene after the graveside service.

Grace is survived by four daughters, Terri Main & husband Doug of Las Vegas, NM, Cathy Anazao-Johnson & husband Billy of Alamogordo, NM, Denise Buchanan & husband Rick of Chanute, KS, Jane Fortin & husband John of Overton, KS, 13 grandchildren, and 18 great-grandchildren. She also leaves three brothers, Roy Keller & wife Jean of Valley Center, KS, Mike Keller of Wichita, KS, Bud Keller & wife Sue of Preston, KS, and two sisters, Freda Smith & husband Bill of Wichita, KS, and Carol Buster & husband David of Stafford, KS. Grace is preceded in death by son Don Morris, two grandchildren, sisters Dorothy Reid and Gaylene Fischer, brothers Wesley, Fay, and Donald, and five siblings who died as infants.

Grace was born on April 25, 1936, to Emmet & Verlie Keller in Pratt County, Kansas. "Gracie" was one of sixteen children born to the Kellers and was deeply rooted in the faith and love she learned as a Kansas farm girl. Grace graduated from Preston High School in 1954, and attended Central Christian College in McPherson, KS before marrying John Kroeker on January 5, 1957. During the seven short years that followed, the couple moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana where John attended Fort Wayne Bible College, and then to Bucklin, KS where they ministered together until John's death in 1964.

Following John's death, Grace moved to Dodge City, KS with their two young daughters and attended nursing school. While in school she met Boyd Morris, and by the time she graduated and became an LPN, she and Boyd were married and making plans to move to Garden City, KS. They remained together until Boyd's death in February 2006, just six months before they would have celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary.

Grace loved her family and cared for them in ways too numerous to count. Grace also loved her church family, and was an active member of congregations in Bucklin, Garden City, Dodge City, Liberal, Great Bend, and Olathe as Boyd's work and retirement took them across Kansas. Ministry was an ongoing theme in Grace's life through singing, nursing home and bus ministries, calling on shut-ins, and serving as a deaconess due to the extent of her involvement in lay ministries. Grace also had a playful side, collecting dolls and toys, joining in silly games and contests at family reunions, and making her popular with the children of her church.

Memorial donations in Grace's honor may go to the Westside Church of the Nazarene building fund to help pay off the mortgage on the new sanctuary that Boyd's memorial helped to start. The family would like to thank new friends from First Baptist Church in Chanute, KS for welcoming Grace into their fellowship over this past year, and faithful friends from Westside Church who sent cards, called, and visited during the last months of Grace's life.