Mrs. Claudette Johnson Morrison

Claudette Johnson Morrison age 87, formerly of Chickamauga, Georgia, passed away peacefully while under hospice care at her daughter’s home in Lebanon, Tennessee, on Thursday, December 8, 2022, from complications due to a stroke. A life-long resident of Walker County, she was born April 8, 1935, in Rossville, Georgia, the daughter of the late Cecil F. Johnson Sr. and Addie Amelia Stephenson Johnson. She was preceded in death by her loving husband of 59 years, Billy D. "Cotton" Morrison, and her brother, Cecil F. Johnson Jr., and her nephew, Jon Johnson. Mrs. Morrison was a member of Immanuel Baptist Church in Lebanon, where she sang in the choir until her health begin to falter. In Chickamauga, she was a member of the former Fellowship Baptist Church for over 45 years, where she was a choir member and served as a member of several different committees over the years. She was known for her love for the church and its people. After graduating from Gordon Lee Memorial High School in 1953, she worked at Pioneer Bank and American National Bank in Chattanooga, Tennessee. From 1975 to 1989, she worked as secretary to the principals of Gordon Lee Memorial High School. In 1990, she was hired by the Chickamauga Board of Education and former Superintendent Paul Chambers as Alumni Coordinator to start the Gordon Lee Memorial High School Alumni Association. Always praising the alumni who supported the association, she started the Janus Alumni Newsletter and organized the first All-Class Alumni Reunion in 1993 with over 550 plus in attendance. She retired from the Alumni Association in 1994. In 1999, she and her husband were awarded the Roy Gilstrap Alumni Support Award as Distinguished Alumnus from the Alumni Association for their years of service to the school. Her civic work included volunteering with the Red Cross first at Hutcheson Medical Center and later at Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga, where she served as Red Cross Chair person for Volunteers until her health declined. She also served as a board member, former secretary, and financial secretary of the Chickamauga Older American Center. In 2016, she sold her home in Chickamauga and moved to Sycamore Retirement Community in Donelson, Tennessee, where she lived for two years, before moving into a mother-in-law apartment attached to her daughter’s home in Lebanon, Tennessee. Survivors include her daughter and son-in-law, Amelia Morrison (Jim) Hipps of Lebanon, Tennessee; two brothers and sisters-in-law, Ronnie (Cheryl) Johnson of Signal Mountain, Tennessee; Larry (Dawn) Johnson of Bel Air, Maryland; four nieces Cassie Johnson (Matt) Brothers, Jenny Johnson (Brian) Tawney, Emily Johnson (Sean) Farley, and Pamela Johnson (Steven) Tyler-Kroon, and several great and great-great nieces and nephews. Visitation will be on Saturday, December 10, from 10:00 a.m. until 12:30 p.m., with a Celebration of Life service following in the chapel at Wilson Funeral Homes – J.. Avery Bryan Chapel in Chickamauga, Georgia, with her daughter giving the eulogy. Burial will follow at Mount Pleasant Cemetery at Ascalon, Georgia, on Lookout Mountain. The family thanks her loving and compassionate in-home caregivers, Donna Sims and Sara McClenon; and the loving and compassionate staff of Avalon Hospice in Lebanon for the quality of care they provided Mrs. Morrison for the last eight months of her life due to vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s, especially her primary nurses, Darlene Sullins Shockley and Ivy Bryant; other nurses, Danielle Dunn, Cory Schriever, and Wynde Wheeler; home health aide, Amanda George; and chaplain Ron Ullrich. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Billy D. “Cotton” & Claudette J. Morrison Memorial Golf Scholarship Fund with the Gordon Lee Memorial Alumni Association & Foundation, 402 Cove Road, Chickamauga, GA 30707. Online register book at www.wilsonfuneralhome.com. Arrangements by Wilson Funeral Homes – J. Avery Bryan Chapel – Chickamauga, Georgia.

Mrs. Claudette Johnson Morrison

April 8, 1935 - December 8, 2022