Jacqueline Morse

Jacqueline “Jackie” Morse, formerly of Bainbridge Island, died peacefully on July 21 with family at her bedside, having lost her four-year battle with melanoma.

A true serviceman’s wife, Jackie enjoyed tours in Hawaii, Seattle, Cape Cod, Connecticut, Maine and Washington D.C. – though it should be noted that she did not much enjoy the year she was left alone with three children the year Dick was serving in Vietnam.

After her husband’s first retirement, they lived in Potomac, Md., Nairobi, Kenya – a three-year tour with the United Nations Environment Program – and Olympia.

Their second retirement was on Bainbridge Island in 1981, where she was a member of Wing Point Golf and Country Club and enjoyed gardening at their Wing Point home. Catching the RV’ing “bug” in 1988 found them spending winters traveling the southwestern United States and northern Mexico looking for a winter hideaway with a golf course. They settled in Arizona’s Valley of the Sun in 1990 and moved to a permanent home in Peoria, Ariz., in 1997.

After giving up the RV lifestyle, the couple took annual vacations to Mexico, the Caribbean, Alaska, Costa Rica, South America, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. In addition to golf, she was an avid gardener, hiker, traveler and explorer, always up for a picnic or a good garage sale. She loved her hobby as a fashion designer and seamstress; in her last years, she discovered computerized embroidery, which she enjoyed teaching to some of the ladies of the local needle arts club.

She was preceded in death by her brother Eugene Robbie, USMC, who died on Iwo Jima; and her parents, Robert Watson Robbie and Clara Nicod Robbie, both of Winslow.

She is survived by her loving husband of 58 years, Richard “Dick” Morse, Commander, U.S. Coast Guard, Retired; sister Joan Butler of Diamond Point in Sequim; son Ladd Morse of Jefferson, Md.; daughter Jan Morse of Glendale, Ariz.; and daughter Dana Mansell of Newmarket, Md.

A small memorial service will be held at a later date.