Nancy Schallert Lofton Morrow

NANCY SCHALLERT LOFTON MORROW
May 11, 1917 ~ August 5, 2009

Carmel - Nancy Schallert Lofton Morrow, a long time Peninsula resident, died August 4, 2009 at the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula at the age of 92. Born in 1917 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to Dr. Paul Otto & Grace Schallert, she was raised in the Moravian Church, which fostered her deep and lasting love of music.
A 1938 graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, Ms. Morrow was the first woman to enter the Honors' program and was a member of the Chi Omega sorority and the Womens' Honor Society.
She returned to graduate school at UC Berkeley and in 1955 she received her lifetime teaching credential. She taught at Monte Vista School in Monterey for 21 years, helped write the Humanities Framework for California Schools, and read aloud to her students for at least a half hour every day.
She was appointed by Governor Earl Warren to serve on the state committee to implement the Fisher Bill, an early attempt to improve teacher education, and to the California Curriculum Commission, overseeing curriculum development and textbook selection for California schools. Under the aegis of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, she served also on the National Committee to improve teaching in Math and Science.
Ms. Morrow came to the Monterey Peninsula in 1943 with her husband, artist Richard Lofton. Settling in Carmel, CA they raised their two daughters, Nana and Melissa, and she began acting in plays at the Golden Bough Theater with Ted Kuster and in the Forest Theater with Bert Heron. In 1945, she joined the Carmel Bach Festival Chorus and worked as an assistant to founders Hazel Watrous and Dene Denny. She served as a feature writer for the Carmel Pine Cone and the Carmel Spectator and wrote reviews and publicity for the Carmel Music Society and the Carmel Bach Festival. She also designed and created the many heraldic banners that feature annually in the Carmel Bach Festival mission concerts.
During her lifetime, she served on the boards of the Carmel Music Society, Carmel Bach Festival, All Saints' Church, and the Casa Abrego Club in Monterey, CA.
Richard Lofton died in 1966, and in 1970 she married Dr Dwight Whitney Morrow, Jr., a longtime resident of Carmel Valley, CA, author, teacher at Monterey Institute of International Studies and researcher in the field of economics. Mr. Morrow was the brother of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, wife of Charles Lindbergh. He died in 1976. In 1992, Ms. Morrow married William Andrew Burkett, a resident of Pebble Beach and a retired banker who died in 1999.
She is survived by her daughter, artist Melissa Lofton; two granddaughters, actress Francesca Faridany and Lucy Faridany, and their husbands Stephen Wadsworth Zinsser and Rob Chelotti; and a great-granddaughter, Giulia Francesca Chelotti, born July 4, 2009. Ms. Morrow's daughter Nana Faridany, who was executive director of the Carmel Bach Festival, died in 2005.
She is also survived by step-children Faith Williams of Washington, D.C., Julie Burkett Hooker of Seattle, WA, Catherine Burkett Congdon of San Francisco, CA and William Cleveland Burkett, also of San Francisco.
There will be a Memorial Service on August 22, 2009 at 3:30 p.m. at All Saints' Episcopal Church, Dolores and 9th, Carmel.
Contributions in her memory can be made to the Carmel Bach Festival and All Saints Church, Carmel.