Ginevra Morse Naill's Obituary
Ginevra Morse Naill born on January 24th, 1947, in Cleveland, Ohio, Ginevra was the youngest and fourth daughter of musicians Richard (Dick) William Morse and Katherine (Kitty) Ruth Karnes Morse. Richard Morse was a classical music composer and head of the music department at Ripon College, WI, until his death in 1954. Ginevra’s parents met in New York City in the 1930s, at St. John the Divine Episcopal Cathedral, where Kitty was singing soprano solos and Richard was playing a small high baroque trumpet. They fell in love and were married at Kitty’s home in Oshkosh, WI, on June 14, 1939. This beautiful marriage laid the foundation for Ginevra’s life of music.
Ginevra lived in six different states but spent the longest time in Norton Shores, Michigan (since 1986). She mostly thought of Ripon, WI, as her hometown because that is where she grew up (from kindergarten through junior high school). Ripon is also where her father died at age 42, from Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, when she was only seven years old. This tragedy impacted Ginevra throughout her life.
Ginevra knew by the age of four that she wanted to be a music teacher, as were her mother, father, and her best friend’s mother, Hellen Goodrich (who was like a second mother to Ginevra). In order to pursue her teaching license in classroom music, Ginevra attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison, earning her Bachelor’s degree in 1969, with a major in Vocal Performance under the tutelage of Betina Biorgston, and a minor in Piano under Carrol Chilton.
Ginevra taught for her first year in Lake Forest, IL, where she met the love of her life and future husband, William Edward Naill, Jr. (Ed). Ed was finishing a “Kiddy Cruise” in the Navy (meaning he served from age 17 to 21) in Newfoundland. The two lovebirds were married the following summer in Door County, WI, on June 14, 1970, with Ed’s father, Bill Sr., as the minister. Ginevra’s sister Meredith was her bridesmaid, and her niece Becky Shutan, at age three, was the flower girl (Ed and Ginevra chose to be married on the same date as her parents).
Later, while Ed was in college and medical school in Milwaukee, Ginevra taught music for seven years in the West Allis, WI, school district. During that time, she earned a Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance, under the tutelage of Yolanda Marculescu, at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Yolanda Marculescu was a famous Romanian-American coloratura soprano and diva of the Romanian National Opera in Bucharest).
After Ed graduated from the Medical College of Wisconsin and during his internship in Denver, CO, their daughter Andrea was born on January 24, 1978, Ginevra’s birthday. They moved to Kitzingen, West Germany for three and a half years to fulfill Ed’s Army scholarship requirement for his medical degree. They returned to the states in 1982 and their son, William (Bill), was born in Madison, WI, in 1983, during Ed’s residency in Radiation Oncology.
The Naill family moved to Muskegon, MI, in 1986 where Ginevra’s husband joined the Hackley Hospital Cancer Center as a Radiation Oncologist. At that time, Andrea was in second grade, and William was three years old. Shortly after, Ginevra was asked by another doctor’s wife, Claire Chiasson, to teach music at her Montessori school. Ginevra enriched thousands of lives during her twenty-six years of teaching at Montessori, until Claire retired and sold her school to a daycare facility.
Ginevra was extremely proud of her family ancestry. Some of her ancestors include Samuel Finley Breese Morse, who invented Morse Code and the telegraph, John Myers, the first mayor of Canton, Ohio, and Phillip McCord Morse, the inventor of sonar and a contributor to the development of the atomic bomb with Albert Einstein. Uncle Phil was also head of the Physics Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Another of Ginevra’s uncles, Allen Crafts Morse, who was on the faculty of Dartmouth, helped develop the Atlas, Saturn, and Apollo space rockets and lunar modules, as well as the hydraulic systems that controlled the wing flaps, gimbals, and landing gears on the shuttles. He worked on the Challenger, Columbia, Discovery, and Atlantis shuttles and retired having worked on the preliminary designs for the Space Station.
Ginevra is survived by her husband of over 54 ½ years, W. Edward Naill; her daughter, Andrea Colleen Naill-Alderink (husband Jon Alderink); her granddaughter, Lunaria Naill-Alderink; her incredible sisters with whom she was extremely close, Challoner Morse Brown, Jocelyn Morse Doden, and Meredith Morse Miller; and her nieces and nephews, Carolton Collins, Rebecca and Robert Shutan, Colleen Doden, and Tiffany Miller.
Ginevra was preceded in death by her beloved son Bill of 40 years old with whom she was incredibly close. Bill tragically passed suddenly the day before Ginevra died, unbeknownst to her. But we are certain that Bill welcomed his Mom into paradise and that the two are happily singing and playing their Didgeridoos together, continuing, what they called, their "Didgeriduo
Funeral services will be 3:00 PM, Friday, April 4, 2025, at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church (1200 Seminole Road Norton Shores, MI 49441). Visitation will be held 5-7 PM Thursday, April 3, 2025, at The Lee Chapel of Sytsema Funeral & Cremation Service, 6291 S. Harvey Street, Norton Shores, MI 49444. Memorial contributions may be given to the West Shore Symphony Orchestra (Muskegon), Muskegon Chamber Choir, or Education Through Music (ETM). Please sign the family’s online guestbook at www.sytsemafh.com.
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