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LILLIAN MORRISON Obituary
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Memories and Condolences
for LILLIAN MORRISON
Sponsored by The Estate of Lillian Morrison.
barbara Clark
January 22, 2022
a lovely woman who always beat me at scrabble and an excellent poet
July 8, 2015
Hello Mary. Do you know (or know of) a friend of Lillian's named Anne Eyre de Lanux Strong? Anne's family offer our sincere condolences on the occasion Lillian's passing (of which we just learned today). If you are the Mary who called Anne's family a few years ago, please take a moment to phone her home in California. You have the number. There is recent news about Anne. Thank you. From: Nona Strong.
Elizabeth "Zabby" Hovey
April 13, 2014
I was honored to be at the gathering to remember Lillian yesterday, which was announced in this guest book. I had known her slightly, through a mutual friend, but she was very easy to know well. I look forward to appreciating her poetry and her example for many many years to come.
Marjorie Mir
April 12, 2014
‘“COME HOME, COME HOME”
A reply to Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Aimee,
reading your poem brings home
the simple truth
that these are words I cannot say.
No one is away, or can be,
from these rooms.
Still, there are days
when the kettle warms.
the table waits,
days when the door will hold
in its frame the faces, open arms
of friends.
Space opens, too, the air displaced
by voices, warming presences.
The kettle calls, cushions yield,
the rooms are filled.
Throughout the fading afternoon,
there will be talk, cake consumed,
poems exchanged.
What more? No more.
They are here. We are replete.
Marjorie Mir
Remembering many enjoyable afternoons in Lillian's company
one of the sunny afternoons spent with Lillian at her place
SALLIE ERICHSON
April 12, 2014
Lillian and Mimi on Lillian's 90th
Jeannette Williams
February 28, 2014
February 26, 2014
Over the years Lillian kept in touch with many friends by phone and by mail. (Picture taken 11/09)
February 20, 2014
Chris Stromee
February 18, 2014
A gathering to celebrate
the life of
Lillian Morrison
sharing memories
and short anecdotes
Saturday, April 12
2 – 3 PM
The Lounge at Hudson View Gardens
Entrance at Pinehurst off the 183rd St. driveway
RSVP: [email protected] or [email protected]
Lillian in Pink
Jeannette Williams
February 17, 2014
Lillian and Neighbor
Jeannettte Williams
February 17, 2014
A Toast
Jeannette Williams
February 17, 2014
Robert L Harrison
February 17, 2014
Lillian was a wonderful person, I remember when she called me to ask permission to use one of my sports poems in one of her books. Over the years I made it into four of her children's books including the photograph of her in "Way To Go," which is the first one on this site. She had a great sense of humor and during the last few years I use to call her and talk about how the New York Mets were doing, her favorite baseball team.
Marjorie Mir
February 16, 2014
A celebration for Lillian's birthday, Bronxville NY
Marjorie Mir
February 15, 2014
Mary and Lillian in Front of Hudson View
Jeannette Williams
February 14, 2014
Lillian and Tulips
Jeannette Williams
February 14, 2014
Marsha Howard
February 13, 2014
Lillian was Coordinator of Young Adult Services when I recruited myself into the YA seminar shortly after finishing my MLS. She was an icon even then--a published poet and a librarian! But she was a warm and approachable icon and gently taught us, by example, what we needed to know to move on in the field. There were many fine librarians but Lillian was truly one of a kind.
SALLIE ERICHSON
February 11, 2014
Lillian Morrison was my friend for nearly forty years. To my knowledge, she was the last star in that constellation of NY women in the arts of her generation - Mura, Stella, Eyre, Emma, Rose, Marian -
She is perhaps best known for her Young People's contributions, the rhymes, but in her archives there is a treasure trove of her own mature works which has not been officially represented. She did so much to nurture my own writing, it was her way. I am not alone! She had the knack of saying just enough to help but not too much. I hope we can help bring her sleeping beauties to life, and that her death will be one way of bringing attention to her work, her shining soul.
Lillian and I on the way to a poetry reading, Spring 2010, my last photo of her
SALLIE ERICHSON
February 11, 2014
S Blount
February 10, 2014
My mother worked for Ms. Morrison for 20 years. As children along with our mother we were invited to many book signings in the 70's and early 80's. She treated us as if we were family. I'm in my 40's now, but I still remember her kindness. May she rest in peace.
Lillian's Little Red Suitcase
Jeannette Williams
February 9, 2014
February 8, 2014
In Memory of NYPL Retiree Lillian Morrison
Lillian Morrison, who died on January 27, 2014, was born and grew up in Jersey City, New Jersey. She earned a bachelor's degree, Phi Beta Kappa, as a math major at Rutgers University in 1939. After a chance encounter with a friend who told her the Library was hiring, she began working as a clerk at 42nd Street. She found she loved working there, surrounded by books and by people who loved them and were so knowledgeable. She enrolled at Columbia University to get her library degree, working two nights a week and going to school three nights a week. The only opening available when she graduated was a young adult position, and she found she liked working with teenagers. One of her favorite early positions was at the Aguilar Branch, where the third floor had been turned into a “Teen Canteen,” based on the canteens created for service men during World War II. Other positions included stints at 67th Street and Seward Park, Vocational School Specialist, Branch Librarian at Kingsbridge, Assistant Young Adult Coordinator (working with Margaret Scoggin), and Coordinator of Young Adult Services from 1966 until her retirement in 1982. She also served as a lecturer at both Rutgers and Columbia Universities.
As a child, Lillian developed an interest in poetry from playing rhyming games such as jump rope and patty cake with her friends and later became enchanted with the autograph rhymes introduced to her by teens in the branch libraries. She was particularly interested in folk rhymes, outdoor sports, dance, jazz, and film, saying, “I love rhythms, the body movement implicit in poetry, explicit in sports – I am drawn to athletes, dancers, drummers, jazz musicians, who transcend misery and frustration and symbolize for us something joyous, ordered, and possible in life” (from www.goodreads.com) She wanted to share her love of poetry by making it fun and accessible for children and teens, and she did this as a published author. Among her books are Yours Till Niagara Falls, Ghosts of Jersey City, Guess Again!: Riddle Poems, and The Sidewalk Racer, and other Poems of Sports and Motion. Her poetry for adults includes the book A Good Catch for the Universe: Poems on Growing Older, and she contributed poems to many magazines including Prairie Schooner, Sports Illustrated, and Atlantic. She was also the general editor for two Crowell series publications, Poems of the World and Crowell Poets.
Lillian was recognized as the recipient of the American Library Association's Grolier Award in 1987 for her contributions to stimulating the interests of young people through reading, and she inspired many teens and young adult librarians during her almost fifty years at The New York Public Library. She is survived by two nephews, and a grand nephew. One of her final poems will be published in the NYPL Retirees Association spring Newsletter.
- Becky Koppelman, The New York Public Library Retirees Association.
Rosamund Thalmann
February 7, 2014
Lillian was the first person I met in Washington Heights. I went up there on Rosh Hashanah, 1998, to look for an apartment. There she was on the Pinehurst Steps and we got talking. It was the beginning of a fantastic friendship. You were the best, Lil. Missing you and loving you always.
Lillian in her winter hat
February 5, 2014
Marian Reiner
February 4, 2014
(The following obituary was submitted to various publications by Lillian's literary agent, Marian Reiner. Anyone who wants permission to reprint Lillian's work, please contact Marian.)
Lillian Morrison was born in 1917 in Jersey City, New Jersey. She grew up in the city and in writing about her early life she said, "Mine was a city childhood and our playground was the street. We jumped rope, roller-skated, played almost every kind of ball game....stoop ball, stick ball..." She graduated from high school in the mid 1930's and used scholarships and money earned from waitressing to put herself through Douglass College at Rutgers University. After earning a BA in mathematics she enrolled at the School of Library Services at Columbia University and earned a graduate degree from Columbia in 1942.
She worked in the public libraries of New York City for four decades and while doing that work began to write verse and to collect the various sayings she saw when children used to bring her their albums to sign. She
started to save the comments from the albums and created an anthology which was called YOURS TILL NIAGARA FALLS.
Among her other collections were BLACK WITHIN AND RED WITHOUT: A BOOK OF RIDDLES. She also edited a collection of folk sayings which she titled A DILLER, A DOLLAR, RHYMES AND SONGS FOR THE TEN O'CLOCK SCHOLAR and I SCREAM,YOU SCREAM A Feast of Food Rhymes. Other anthologies,
SPRINTS AND DISTANCES and RHYTHM ROAD, were American Library Association Notable Children's Books. And she published books of original poems. Her first was GHOSTS OF JERSEY CITY, chosen as an Ambassador Book in 1967 by the English Speaking Union and sent to nineteen countries. Her most well known books were THE SIDEWALK RACER AND OTHER POEMS OF SPORTS AND MOTION and WHISTLING THE MORNING IN.
She died on January 27.
Marlon Cherry
February 4, 2014
So many fun and warm memories of times spent with Lillian. I'll always treasure the gifts that she gave me and always smile when I think of her.
Mary Woodward
February 2, 2014
Lillian's friendship meant the world to me. She was my first real friend in New York 32 years ago. I wrote this poem for her funeral service that I could not attend.
Lillian's Eulogy
I leave to you "fellow racers,"
my bottomless love of life,
my passions for poetry
and your friendship
I give you sunsets over the Palisades,
the glint of golden light
between buildings at Castle Village,
all viewed sipping hot water and
dining on alpine lace cheese,
from my kitchen table
You may treasure the songs
of cardinals from my balcony
the spring blooms in the drive,
our walks around Hudson View's gardens,
fall leaves floating in the lane
You have my memories of Eyre, Stella, Mura, Esther, Tessa, Daisy, M.C., Mimi, and Pearl,
and many others
Some will remember "Kid Chocolate and
Bat Batalino, my favorite featherweights."
You known the bounce of my step, and
the tilt of my baseball cap, placed just so--
on the way to the ballpark,
hoping the Mets could win at least once
Perhaps you'll recall my joy of
Mookie, Hubie, and Strawberry
You'll find my scribbles, my "ditties,"
my rhymes and riddles,
and unfortunately, file drawers still full of poems and your correspondence that I could not part with, that I played over in my mind
I always had questions
to ask of you and of you alone,
each of you had my full attention,
and I leave you my wish
that you will find the landing spot
for my Cessna, something I could not
locate at the end.
--Mary Woodward Jan. 26, 2014
Terry Lorden
February 2, 2014
Lillian was a wondrous gift and inspiration and friend to so many of us at HVG and this neighborhood. Her insistent message, always: to love life.
The Dance by Lillian Morrison
February 1, 2014
The Dance
I step into the arc of day,
the daily round, they call it.
Beneath the hum and drum
I hear another sound—
Mysterious music, rhythmical,
elusive, to which I try to move
in equilibrium. This is not solid ground.
When I was young, they said,
who is that girl
who walks with such a bounce
who leapfrogs down the street with friends
heart pumping,
who sometimes jumps for joy
with joy in jumping?
Well, now I mostly stroll
and on occasion twirl
or kick up heels
and when I fall, I rise
adagio—to that same music,
assistant choreographer
of my many turning self.
I want to keep on dancing
though the dance be slow
until that final turn
when I curve away alone
completing the luminous arc,
that longer arc, and move into the dark
part of the circle.
Written by Lillian, left with instructions that this poem be read at her funeral
Lillian in her living room
February 1, 2014
Lillian leaving the F Building
February 1, 2014
Lillian
February 1, 2014
Lillian in her high school jacket
February 1, 2014
Lillian in her summer straw hat
February 1, 2014
Rosalie Morrison
January 30, 2014
Lillian was my aunt by marriage. I am married to her nephew, Robert Morrison. I was in awe of her keen mind. She was in awe of my ability to change a light bulb. I bet if I walked into her bathroom right now, that same number 2 pencil would still be propping up the drain release in her tub. That was part of the joy of knowing Lillian.
I will miss her terribly. Her poem
"Holes" comes to mind.
January 29, 2014
Lillian was an enthusiast, embracing poetry, sports and jazz. Despite disabilities, her mind remained keen,
her humor intact until the end of her life.
Marjorie Mir
Beryl Eber
January 28, 2014
A long life well lived. An influence on so many. Will be long remembered.
PENNY JEFFREY
January 28, 2014
Ms Morrison was a mentor to countless librarians and poets. I was fortunate enough to have been the recipient of her knowledge and demonstration of how to be a truly life-changing librarian.
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