Beth Morris, 100, a native of Texarkana, died of natural causes Thursday, February 22, 2024, after a short stay at Christus St Michael Hospital.
Addie Beth Lamb was born November 15, 1923, to Hugh L. Lamb and Adelaide (Hinton) Lamb, both teachers in Texarkana public schools. She was the second of two children.
After graduating from the high school where her father became principal and later Superintendent of Schools, she stayed in Texarkana and was married to Robert W. Morris, who joined Day & Zimmerman’s Lone Star munitions factory as a production engineer. For the rest of her life, except for two brief periods when he was posted to Kansas and Nevada, she remained a resident of Texarkana.
She described herself as a homemaker and later became a successful realtor, but her most important roles were as a caregiver and friend. Her long career as a caregiver began with her mother-in-law Willie L. Morris in the 1960s. For the next 25 years, she cared for her grandmother Hinton and both her parents, who all lived into their late 90s.
As a friend, she was one of four girls born the same year who remained inseparable for almost 90 years. They attended school together beginning with kindergarten in the 1920s. For excitement as teenagers in the 1930s, they sometimes sneaked out late at night to lie down across the center stripe on State Line Avenue. Beth said their feet were always in Arkansas, their hearts in Texas.
They stayed close as they raised families, moving to different areas of the city. By 2000, all four were widowed and living within two blocks of each other in the Oak Lawn area. Their long friendship and fierce bridge competition kept them near to one another.
By 2011, the last of the three others had passed away. Beth moved herself to the Brookdale assisted living facility in Texarkana. There, she became an informal motivation coach to her fellow residents and staff.
She celebrated her 100th birthday and 13th year at Brookdale in November with more than 25 family members and friends and a similar number of staff and residents.
Her body began to fail on Sunday, February 18, 2024. An attentive Brookdale staff member noticed that she was in distress. She was transferred by ambulance to the hospital, where she received superb care from the medical and nursing staff in the cardiac unit and, near the end, from the Hospice of Texarkana nursing team.
She is survived by her daughter Marjorie Morris Scardino and son-in-law Albert Scardino of Bluffton SC; her son Robert W. Morris Jr. and daughter-in-law Mary Ann VanCuren of Owasso OK; five grandchildren, a great-granddaughter, and eight great-grandsons.
She was preceded in death by her husband Robert W. Morris Sr., her parents H. L. and Adelaide Lamb; her sister Marjorie Lamb Blassingame of Pensacola FL and her daughter-in-law Toni England Morris of Owasso OK.
A memorial service will be held on Tuesday, February 27, 2024 at Hardy Memorial Methodist Church at 2:00 P.M. A private family burial service will follow at a later date.
The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to a favorite charity.
