Obituary
Leighton Wallace Morrell, better known by many as Lee and to his grandkids as Bunky, passed away unexpectedly on March 26, 2021, just shy of his 78th birthday. He was born on April 4, 1943 in Minneapolis, MN to William and Lucille Morrell. He was the third of four children – Sharon Anderson, Evelyn Chimelis and DeWayne Morrell.
He is survived by two daughters, Melanie Kyker of California and Kimberly Beddard of Florida. He also had four grandchildren – Ali Schmitt, Ashlee Kyker, Elliot Beddard and Anna Kyker – and one great granddaughter, Madelyn Jewell.
He graduated from Minnehaha Academy in 1961. After working for IBM for several years, he fell in love with sailing. He earned his Captain’s license and master SCUBA diving license, chartering sailboats throughout the entire Western Hemisphere. Lee also went on to develop talents in the arts and sciences through drawing, stained glass, painting, electronics, carpentry, mechanics and photography – just to name a few. His favorite place, though, always remained the sea.
While being healthy and active in his retirement years, his body was quietly developing an abdominal aortic aneurysm, which ultimately took his life. We share this information so all of Lee’s friends and family know about this silent killer that does not have to be fatal if it is discovered in time.
If you wish to learn more about this, we encourage to visit The John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health at https://www.johnritterfoundation.org/your-aortic-health which is working hard to help make the health care community and general public more aware of catching aortic aneurysms before they claim another precious life.
A celebration of Life is being planned for later this summer in Minneapolis, MN. For now, Melanie and Kim have started a memorial page for Leighton. We invite you to share your memories, stories, photographs and prayers as we all grieve through this loss and find our healing together. Visit https://everloved.com/life-of/leighton-morrell
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