Judy Ann Tate Morgan's Obituary
Judy Ann Tate Morgan, 89, of Potomac Falls, Virginia, passed away on February 2, 2026, at Inova Loudoun Hospital after a short illness. Born on December 24, 1936, in Pomona, Guilford County, North Carolina, she was raised in Forest City, Rutherford County, North Carolina, where she attended Cool Springs High School from 1951 to 1955.
Judy was an avid scholar and lecturer in the field of Botany in the 1950s and 1960s. She attended Pfeiffer College in Misenheimer, North Carolina on a full scholarship and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Botany in 1959. She continued her studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill under the direction of Dr. A. E. Radford in the Department of Botany, earning her Master of Arts degree in 1962 and her PhD in 1967.
Judy’s contributions to botanical science endure through her extensive specimen collections. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium has cataloged approximately 50 vascular plant specimens she collected. Her meticulously collected and mounted specimens from Morrow Mountain State Park and other research sites can be found in herbaria across the country. Her distinguished early career included work with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Smithsonian Institution in the 1960s before she devoted herself to raising her family.
Judy is survived by her beloved husband of over 64 years, Benjamin Morgan, whom she met at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and married on September 1, 1961, in Rutherford County, North Carolina; her daughters, Gwendolyn Morgan and Sarah Morgan; her granddaughter, Evelyn Agedo; and her sister, Jane Walker of Forest City, North Carolina. She was preceded in death by her parents, Norwegia Groce Tate and Mal Olan Tate, as well as two of her sisters, Brenda Nanney and Sue Petro.
Throughout her life, Judy maintained a deep passion for the natural world, enjoying nature walks, wildflowers, and bird spotting. She was a woman of refined tastes and creative talents, with particular interests in interior design, colonial home restoration, and furniture repair and restoration. She and her husband bought an 1802 Quaker colonial house in Waterford, Virginia in 1972, and spent many hours meticulously restoring it. She loved shopping for bargains at auctions and in thrift stores. She also enjoyed teaching herself new skills and completing projects like making living room drapes, re-caning a chair, or reupholstering an armchair. She was an avid reader of classic and popular literature and enjoyed listening to opera and classical music. As a young woman, she was a talented singer and sang in her church choir; later, she enjoyed attending operas and classical music concerts with her husband in venues around Loudoun County and in the Washington, D.C. area. Judy loved celebrating family birthdays and holidays. Her favorite holiday was Christmas, and she spent hours shopping, cooking special treats and meals for her family, and decorating the house for the holidays. In 1998, Judy and her husband moved to the Mt. Gilead community, just south of Leesburg on Catoctin Ridge. She was an active member of the Mt. Gilead book club and cherished time spent visiting with her family, taking walks along the roads and in the woods, and attending social gatherings with her neighbors. Judy and her husband Ben moved to Lansdowne Woods in 2020 and made several special friends there as well.
A visitation for family and friends to honor Judy’s life will be held on Friday, March 6, 2026, from 2:00-4:00 PM at the Loudoun Funeral Chapel, 158 Catoctin Circle, S.E., Leesburg, VA 20175.
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