Mary Alice (Hensley) Morrissey

Mary Alice Morrissey, age 80, of Gladstone, Missouri, passed away peacefully after a long battle with cancer, on April 18, 2025, in the comfort of her home.

The fourth of five children, Mary Alice was born on May 18, 1944, in Lillybrook, West Virginia. She was the beloved daughter of Dr. Clyde Hensley and Ruth Vivian Smith Hensley. As the daughter of a Methodist minister, she and her siblings grew up throughout the state of West Virginia, where she graduated from St. Albans high school and loved the winding mountain roads.

In her twenties, a desire to see the world moved her away from the hills of West Virginia and toward the city in Chicago, where she worked for Trans World Airlines (TWA) and met Edward Thomas Morrissey, Jr. Within the year, on August 15, 1969, her father married them at the United Methodist Church in Hinton, West Virginia. In Chicago the couple enjoyed theater performances, art exhibits, museums and sporting events. Mary Alice and Ed lived in Chicago for several more years before an opportunity with TWA and a spirit of great adventure took them to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. There, Ed worked with TWA on behalf of Saudia Airlines, and Mary Alice worked as a secretary for Lockheed Martin at the local Saudi air base. During their time abroad, Mary Alice and Ed made lifelong friends and welcomed their elder daughter, Melissa Jane. They also traveled the world extensively, from a chance meeting of Jane Goodall on a safari in the 1970s to many trips to favorite cities Beirut and London.

After nearly a decade, they relocated to Kansas City, Missouri, settled in the Northland, and welcomed their younger daughter, Jenny Rebecca. Ed continued working for the airlines, and Mary Alice worked as a church secretary with several Methodist congregations.

Guided by her life-long faith, she gave generously and wholeheartedly. Mary Alice drove her daughters to years of piano lessons, sewed them beautiful dresses and Halloween costumes, cheered from the sidelines of their countless soccer games and swim team meets, enjoyed attending their band and choir concerts, and over-fed the many high school friends she welcomed around her kitchen table.

She and Ed loved attending local theater and dance performances in Kansas City, taking walks through Loose Park and its rose garden, and strolling through The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and The Ewing and Muriel Kauffman Memorial Garden. She frequently visited Kansas City's coffee shops and adored attending art films at The Tivoli. She drew great meaning from volunteering as an English as a second language tutor and helping local residents study for the U.S. citizenship test. She was a wonderful cook known for her Christmas curry; a prolific baker of banana bread; a fan of Broadway plays and musicals; a green thumb who could grow virtually anything; a lover of figure skating, the Olympics, horses and The Kentucky Derby; an adoring owner of fluffy cats and sleek salukis; a voracious reader and proponent of local libraries; a proud supporter of Kansas City sports teams; and an eager patron of new restaurants.

Mary Alice was a loving wife, mother, and doting grandmother. She is survived by her husband of nearly 56 years, Edward Thomas Morrissey, Jr.; her daughters, Melissa Jane Morrissey Gilkerson (Nathan Gilkerson) and Jenny Rebecca Morrissey (Aaron Perlman-Price); and her three grandchildren, Truman David Gilkerson, Anders Thomas Gilkerson, and Vaughn Elliott Morrissey-Price. She leaves behind sisters Carolyn Jane Weinert (Guy) and Barbara Ruth Murdock (Tom), sister-in-law Margie Hensley, sister-in-law Patricia Day (Roy), many cherished nieces and nephews, and her steadfast friend of many years, Dianne Hodges. Mary Alice was preceded in death by siblings Estella Suzanne Lipes and Dr. J. Frederick Hensley.

A celebration of life will be held on May 18, 2025, in the dining hall of Platte Woods United Methodist Church. We invite you to join family and friends anytime between 1:00 and 3:00 p.m. to share memories and celebrate Mary Alice's life. In lieu of flowers, the family welcomes donations to Gilda's Club Kansas City, a cancer support organization close to Mary Alice's heart. The family is deeply grateful to the skilled and compassionate teams at The University of Kansas Cancer Center and Kansas City Hospice and Palliative Care for their expert care and unwavering kindness throughout her journey.