Nancy Bradley Morrow, Home Economics Teacher Who Began Her Career in Long Beach, Dies at 92

Nancy Jane Bradley Morrow, a home economics teacher whose career began in Long Beach, died on Monday, Jan. 10, 2022, at St. Anne Place in Rockford, Illinois. She was 92 and had previously lived in Pismo Beach, California.

Morrow was born on Jan. 9, 1930, in Des Moines, Iowa. She was raised there by her parents, Vera M. (Rahe) and Harry A. Bradley, along with four siblings. She graduated from Iowa State University in June 1953, majoring in home economics.

After graduating, Morrow moved to Long Beach and started teaching at Franklin Jr. High, an inner-city school. In 1959 she took an educational leave and spent a year studying at Cornell University in New York. She then returned to Franklin as Dean of Girls.

While visiting friends in San Luis Obispo, she met Dick Morrow, a coach and counselor. The two married in 1962. Morrow then transferred to Morro Bay High School, where she again started as Dean of Girls. She later asked to go back to the classroom and taught a range of home economics subjects: sewing, interior design, house planning, child development, marriage and the family, and foods and nutrition.

She retired in 1993 after 39 years of teaching. According to her obituary, she loved her students but had grown tired of grading projects, meetings and paperwork.

Retirement kept her busy. She encouraged her husband in his broadcasting of Cal Poly baseball games and joined him on trips to research his genealogy. She was also his main caregiver when he became ill. After he died in 2016, Morrow stayed in the Pismo Beach home the couple had built.

In late 2018, at the urging of her sisters Harriet and Ann, she moved into a retirement facility in Rockford, Illinois, because she had no family left in the greater Pismo Beach area. The obituary describes the move as a difficult but good decision, since it meant leaving her home and good friends in California.

Morrow's lifelong interests included music and playing the piano, reading, sewing, exercising, sports and some traveling. She was involved in church youth work, the League of Women Voters and genealogy groups.

She is survived by her sisters, Ann Davitt and Harriet (Gordon) Friday, and by numerous nieces and nephews. Her parents, her brother John "Jack" Bradley, and her sister Mary Barkey died before her.

A graveside service is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 26, 2022, at San Luis Cemetery in San Luis Obispo. Memories and condolences can be shared at olsonfh.com.