JoAnn Heiner Morris was born July 4, 1933 in Ogden, Utah to Orson Carter Heiner and Dorothea Ford Heiner. She died Wednesday, September 30, 2020 in Delta, Utah after a short illness. JoAnn's father died when she was one year old while living in New Mexico. Her mother moved with JoAnn and her older brother, LaMar, to Centerville, Utah where she grew up on her grandfather's farm.
In 1962, JoAnn was divorced with two children and working as a secretary at Thiokol in Brigham City, Utah when she met Sidney Morris. They were married July 27, 1963 in Burlington, Vermont. Due to Sid's job as a contract engineer, they moved about the country from the West to the East coast, and their length of stay in any one place or state was as short as six months or up to two years. When packing for their moves, Sid could often be heard saying "leave that, we don't need it," and she would tell a neighbor to hold onto it and when she got resettled to send it.
In 1975 they moved to Wolf Point, Montana and she thought it was a good time to start a business and opened The Pine Cone, a sandwich and ice cream shop that quickly ballooned into a full blown restaurant and racquetball courts. In 1985 she liquidated the business when they moved to DeLand, Florida.
While in DeLand, at the age of 58, JoAnn fulfilled her goal of earning a college degree. She found it funny that she was taking classes at the same time as her son Wes, especially when she would run into him on campus. She was thrilled when they were able to graduate together.
JoAnn was a busybody and a people person which led her to work for Burdines, a large retail department store near Daytona Beach where she was a sales clerk in the jewelry department. She was soon made supervisor of the department that became one of the best performing departments in the store. After Sid's retirement in 1996, they moved to Las Vegas to care for her mother.
JoAnn's real calling was interior design. During all of their moving around, she had lots of practice and became an expert at making a house a home. She could take a one room hole in the wall and make it feel like a mansion. In her spare time she was an accomplished artist. She could paint a landscape and make it look better than the real thing.
Aside from all the moving, she and Sid also traveled extensively. They visited every state in the U.S. along with many European countries. Eventually they decided to settle down permanently in Delta, Utah, where Sid was born. Once again, JoAnn spent her time decorating another house into a home.
She is survived by her husband: Sid; sons: Kim Wright, Scott (Cecelia) Wright, William (Pat) Coppola, and Shane (Marcia) Morris; brother: Stephen (Diane) Whipple; and sister: Ecco Price; she also had many grandchildren, great grandchildren, great-great grandchildren, nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents and step-father: Columbus Whipple; brothers: LaMar Heiner and Warren Whipple; sister: Gene Whipple; and son: Wesley Cole Morris.
The family thanks the doctors and staff at Delta Community Hospital for their excellent and compassionate care of JoAnn.
A Celebration of Life for JoAnn will be held on Sunday, October 11, 2020 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at 356 Sherwood Drive, Delta, Utah. The family asks that you please observe social distancing and wear masks during the gathering.