Early in the morning of March 13, 2012, Florence “Skipper” Morrison died. Her friends are pretty sure that moments later she skidded into heaven, shouting, “Yahoo, what a journey that was!” Her body was used up from fully living every minute of her almost-ninety-three years, and she probably still had a touch of chocolate icing clinging to the corner of her mouth.

Skipper arrived on Whidbey in 1944, a 25-year-old woman thrilled with the idea of living on an island; she immediately bought a strawberry farm on Holst Road. She worked at the brush plant in Langley, at the hatchery in Clinton, and for the post office as a substitute letter carrier on the dirt roads of the South End: many people (youngsters at the time) still remember the fast driving and enthusiastic young woman who would leave her car, no matter what the weather, to deliver mail to a shut-in. Grateful people often came to the road at mail time to offer Skipper a slice of chocolate cake, her favorite “meal.” 

Skipper also operated a service station in Clinton and ran Skip’s Repair service. She often did handy work, everything from mowing to repairing roofs, sometimes for cash and sometimes for barter. She was still running a chainsaw and backhoe and doing upkeep on her own property into her eighties. 

Born April 4, 1919, Skipper leaves behind an entire population of South Whidbeyites who remember and tell 70 years worth of her Island stories: how she gave her time, generosity, laughter, hospitality, and an infinite supply of parts, tools, and “stuff” she collected in outbuildings over the years (“You never know when someone might need this,” she would say while cramming some odd item into her overflowing shop). 

Skipper loved nothing more than getting together to play music with friends and she continued playing music up until a couple weeks before her death. She could play any keyboard/accordion, many reed instruments, and most stringed instruments, but her favorite was always the ukulele. 

Although she never married or had children, and she outlived all her siblings, she has a “family” of friends and neighbors who will miss her very much. There will be a private celebration of her life in the spring.