Obituary of Mary Jo Morrow

Mary Jo Berndt Morrow was born on June 26, 1944 in Los Angeles, California and died on February 28, 2019 at William Childs Hospice Center in Palm Bay, Florida. Mary Jo graduated from San Fernando High in California and went on to work for Products Research and Chemical Company for many years, the last fifteen of which she held the position of Executive Assistant to the Chairman of the Board and CEO of that company. As a young woman, Mary Jo loved to play tennis and golf and she loved to bowl. During much of her life, however, her health would not allow her to do these things that gave her so much pleasure.  But she was a fighter, always fighting for better health and refusing to let her circumstances get her down. Mary Jo was a person who would do anything in her power for the family she loved and for her friends. She was a very loving, caring woman. Mary Jo became a member of the Santa Monica Elks Lodge in 2001 and, of course, she jumped right in to help that lodge in any way she could. She was a woman of many talents. In 2008, she moved to Barefoot Bay, FL and became a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Sebastian, where she made many friends. Mary Jo is survived by family members Ronald Berndt (nephew), his wife Cammy, his children Camron and Katelyn Berndt, and his mother Candace Arney, all of whom Mary Jo loved dearly. Mary Jo also had a “second family,” her longtime friends the Gookins girls: Mona Young, Mona’s husband Norman Lopez, daughter Diana Young and daughter-in-law Joan Geary, as well as Mary Stafford, Wanda Smith and Elaine Lewis and their families. This family “adopted” Mary Jo many years ago when the girls’ parents, Rev. Floyd Gookins and Bessie Gookins, were still with us. Mary Jo was so very special to this family. Mary Jo was preceded in death by her parents Edward Joseph Berndt and Mary Compton Berndt, her brother, Ronald George Berndt and her very precious niece, Brenda Berndt. Mary Jo will be greatly missed by all those named above and by so many unnamed friends and acquaintances.