Elizabeth Morris (Thornley)

Elizabeth Morris (Thornley) died February 6, 2021 at her home in North Bethesda, Maryland. She is survived by her children. Thomas Patrick Morris Jr., of Washington, D.C. and Catherine J. Morris of Brooklyn and Clermont, New York; and two granddaughters, Elizabeth M. MacGregor and Emily E. Belke. Her daughter Marianne E. Morris and her husband Thomas P. Morris predeceased her. 

Elizabeth was born in Rogers City March 30, 1934, to Paul and Janet Thornley and grew up mostly on Lake Street. Her siblings Catherine Pardike and William Thornley predeceased her. Soon after graduating from Rogers City High School in 1934, Elizabeth moved to Washington, D.C. at 18 to work at the Bureau of Standards and met her future hu

sband at the Rock Creek Tennis Courts. In the 1970s and 1980s Elizabeth was a local news reporter for the Montgomery County Journal. She worked and taught for more than 20 years at the Writer’s Center in Glen Echo Park, Maryland. As a playwright, she had plays produced in the greater Washington region at the Arena Stage, the Source Theater and The Writers’ Center. She was a longtime member of the Zen Center of San Diego when it was headed by Joko Beck. Elizabeth loved tennis, competitive bridge, the Washington Nationals, and her adopted home of Washington, D.C. 

At a future date her ashes will be interred alongside her husband’s at Arlington National Cemetery.