Emma J. Morley

Emma Jean Morley, 99, of Galien, died as quietly and gently as she lived on Friday, May 27, 2022 in the comfort of her family’s presence.

Her life began November 1, 1922, the third of four children born to Ward and Golda Doughten. She married Max A. Morley in August 1942 on her family’s farm in Dayton, Michigan.  After seventy years of marriage, he preceded her in death in 2012.

Emma attended Western Normal College, now Western Michigan University, in Kalamazoo. During her life she worked as a teacher, a bank teller, a wedding cake baker, fed dozens of hay balers, milked cows when her husband was ill, plowed fields and planted corn. She baked hundreds of angel food cakes and Baked Alaskas for birthday parties and sewed clothes, sometimes out of flower-printed gunny sacks. When we were children, Steve said, “We have the only mother who drives a tractor in lipstick and red nail polish.” A lifetime member of the Galien Methodist Church, she seldom missed a Sunday morning, and served for many years as treasurer and active members of the Ladies’ Aid Society. She kept meticulous farm accounts and logged all of our lives in a daily journal that she maintained for sixty years until shortly before her death.

Emma will be greatly missed by family and friends. She is survived by her daughter, Beth (Jack) Lawrence of East Lansing; her son, Michael (Linda) Morley of Niles; six grandchildren, Lisa Morley, Abram Morley, Heather Morley, Nicholas (Amanda) Morley, Benjamin (Tracy) Lawrence, Tobias (Kari) Lawrence; eight great grandchildren, Dylan, Dallas, Max, Josephine, Charlotte, Lola, Sevrin, Otto; sister-in-law, Elsie Doughten; a host of attentive nieces and a nephew.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; her son, Steven James Morley; and her siblings, Everett Doughton, Margaret Renbarger, and Howard Doughten.

The family will observe a private remembrance.

Emma will be laid to rest with her husband in Galien Township Cemetery.

The family would like to extend a special thanks to the staff of The Timbers of Cass County and to all of the friends who religiously sent Emma cards, photos, and notes. She saved them all.

The family prefers that donations in Emma’s memory be made to the Galien Woods Historical Society, Post Office Box 162, 110 South Grant Street, Galien, Michigan 49113.

Arrangements have been entrusted to Wagner Family Funerals Pobocik Chapel, Three Oaks. Please share a memory or a message online: wagnercares.com.

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