Grace Ann Morgan

We celebrate the life of our beloved Grace Ann Morgan who has left her body, she passed away on April 8, 2022 in Portland, OR surrounded and embraced by the eternal love of those left behind. Grace was a deeply spiritual, artistic and powerful woman, who loved the ocean, singing, dancing, writing, and healing others. She was loved deeply by those around her, and will be missed profoundly. A Tibetan Lama connected with Grace when she passed, and noted how quickly she slipped from her body to a better place.

Grace is survived by her 3 children William J Morgan IV, Mary Settle, and Kellie Wachtel; by her 6 wonderful grandchildren, Geneva Morgan, Leena Wachtel, Brooks Wachtel, William J Morgan V, Charlie Settle and Ben Settle, by her 3 wonderful daughter and son-in-laws, Joyce Walker Morgan, Alex Settle, and Lincoln Wachtel, and by Lois Dohra and Felicia Sobel, close companions of Grace over her life. Grace is predeceased by her husband William J Morgan III, her older sister Francine Barkanyi, her younger brother Frank Giliberto, her Aunt Rae with whom she had a very special relationship and her beloved cat Leopold.

Grace was born in New York City on May 21, 1943. In her youth she loved exploring the endless possibilities and culture of New York City from theaters to museums, and these joys accompanied her over her whole life, she was forever a ‘New Yorker at heart’. The Atlantic ocean has always been her joyful place. She started and ended life as an artist, with raw talent inherited from generations of Italian ancestors both painters and sculptors. She attended art school and was influenced by DaVinci and Michelangelo, and taught her children to ‘copy the masters’ in charcoal, drawing and painting; passing her talent on to the next generation. Following the injury of her husband Bill, her artistic pursuits were cut short and she returned to school to study the sciences, receiving bachelors and then a Masters Degree in Environmental Sciences and then worked for many years at Columbia University. She greatly valued education, she was the first of her siblings to attend college and get a Masters. Following a head injury, she fought through memory loss with the ‘never give up’ attitude implicit in her being, left her work in the sciences and returned to the arts and healing.

Earlier in her life, this recently widowed native New Yorker decided to journey west, spending a few years in California just because she was curious to ‘meet new people and see how they lived’. She then chose to live in Nevada because of a ‘life long reverence for the spirituality of the Native American people’ and to be near her Aunt Rae and she found a spiritual community and became a Reiki Master. She bought a small house, and just north of her home, “Shadow Mountain loomed over the horizon, the skies were endless and sundown came with a burst of incredible colors. On many nights the sky was covered with a blanket of stars seemingly all connected.”

Grace enjoyed art, writing, reiki, healing, photography, movies, reading and gardening, but she held the time spent with her children and grandchildren most sacred. She wrote extensively, all unpublished, some people create for the sake of creation, including songs, poems, stories, plays, healing methods and spiritual thesis. Grace dedicated much of her life to healing, as a Karuna Reiki Master Teacher and via a 'Portal'-based healing modality she developed, she worked to ‘ease the existence of people and help them find peace’ in preparation for their passing. Grace’s activism and artistic capabilities merged in both the public mural she painted for the Las Vegas community in support of equal rights which she fought for, and the series of digital art in support of America’s wild horses in Nevada, the thought of their extinction affected Grace deeply and inspired much of her art in her later years. She won various art competitions in the name of the wild mustang.

She loved to sing, she was a natural on stage during karaoke, behind the mike and composing her own music such as her unreleased ‘Spirit Song’. She had an angelic voice, and was truly happy when singing and bringing joy to others through her voice. Josh Groban and Frank Sinatra were two of her favorite artists to sing. Weeks before her passing she sang one last time at Westmoreland Union Manor karaoke night where she resided, and to the acclaim of fellow residents present at her last ‘show’, she sang her heart out. She sang ‘New York, New York’ and ‘My Way’, which is quite telling, Grace did it ‘her way’, she forged her own unique and singular path in life, spreading love and light along the way.

Grace will be deeply missed by those left behind, she will forever be in our collective memories and smiles. The next stage of her journey “to infinity and beyond” as she was fond of saying, has begun.

A Celebration of Life to honor and remember our Amazing Grace will be held on May 13, 2022 at 1-3pm at Skyline Memorial Gardens and Funeral Home, 4101 NW Skyline Boulevard, Portland, Oregon. She will be laid to rest at Gates of Heaven in Westchester NY. Those wishing to remember Grace may make a donation to the americanwildhorsecampaign.org.