Katherine Crews Morrison

Coleman Funeral Home of Oxford Katherine Crews “Kate” Morrison was born in Memphis on November 17, 1963 to John and Kaki Crews. She died peacefully at her home in Panola County, Mississippi on November 19, 2022 with a gathering of family and friends at her side. Kate grew up in Memphis with her mother, father, and younger brothers Johnny and Holt. She attended Briarcrest and Ole Miss before spending five years in Aspen, Colorado as a ski and tennis instructor. Upon moving back to Memphis, she met John Morrison, and they were married on December 15, 1990. Their first son, Phillips, was born in 1991 with Will following in 1995. Kate’s love for the outdoors was apparent from an early age. Her room at the family home on Grove Park Road served as a makeshift veterinary hospital, where she cared for and examined animals of all shapes and sizes, from newts to gerbils to quail to iguanas to peacocks. Lizards living in the bathtub were not outside the realm of normalcy, and her fascination with animals and the outdoors in general from the time she was a little girl served as foreshadowing of a life primarily lived outside among God’s vast creation. While most wives and mothers are content to remain in the comfort and warmth of the home while their husbands and sons are out in the elements pursuing ducks, fish, turkey, or deer, Kate eagerly took part in all of these endeavors. She did so most often with John, Phillips, and Will by her side. She also cherished duck hunting with an all-female cohort dubbed the “Swamp Witches”, who proudly paddled their own canoes and bagged their own ducks without unwanted interference from their husbands. In addition, Kate was an avid horseback rider and adroitly applied her skill in the saddle on countless fox hunts throughout Mississippi and the South. In recent years, Kate found a great deal of joy in hosting Camp Chanticleer or “Camp Kate” on the family’s farm in Panola County, Mississippi. During her summer break from her job teaching physical education at Regents School of Oxford, Kate would host children from the school at the farm for days of swimming, horseback riding, lizard catching, fishing, and other outdoor pursuits. In leading Camp Kate, she was able to share the joy she found in a life lived outside with countless students, which gave her a great deal of happiness through the years. In addition to being a world-class sport, Kate was an incredibly devoted wife and mother. Kate, John, Phillips, and Will traveled all over the world together on hunting, fishing, and skiing trips, and Kate was never without a camera to document their great days. Kate and John raised Phillips and Will in Memphis, where they both were extremely active in the boys’ upbringings. On Friday nights, Kate and John were a fixture at MUS football games, cheering Phillips, Will, and the rest of the Owls on to victory. After Phillips and Will graduated from MUS, Kate and John moved to the farm full-time, where they greatly enjoyed being empty nesters among the rolling hills and towering pines of North Mississippi. It was here that they fulfilled their lifelong dream of living together in the idyllic peace of God’s vast creation. In her valiant battle with cancer, Kate’s trust and faith in her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was apparent in every minute. Kate is predeceased by her father, John Thomas Crews. The family rejoices that she and her father have been reunited after a brief time apart and are basking together in the glory of Heaven. She is survived by her mother, Katherine Elkin Crews, her husband, John Phillips Morrison, her sons John Phillips Morrison, Jr. (Katie) and William Crews Morrison, her brothers John Thomas Crews, Jr. (Michelle) and James Holt Crews (Sidney), and a number of nephews and cousins. The family would also like to thank Kate’s close-knit group of friends, whom she referred to as her “angels”, for their constant care and comfort over the past several months. The visitation will be held from 10:00 to 11:00, Monday, November 28 at Christ Presbyterian Church in Oxford, with a memorial service following immediately thereafter. Coleman Funeral Home of Oxford is in charge of arrangements. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be directed to Church Health (1350 Concourse Ave., Ste. 142, Memphis, TN 38104), Palmer Home for Children (800 Baldwin Road S., Lake Cormorant, MS 38641), or Regents School of Oxford (14 County Road 130, Oxford, MS 38655). Online condolences may be left on her Tribute Wall at www.colemanfuneralhome.com.

Katherine Crews Morrison

November 17, 1963 - November 19, 2022

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