Mary Lane Morrison was born August 15, 1907, in Savannah, Georgia, the daughter of Mills Bee Lane, Sr. and Mary Comer Lane.

Mary graduated from Smith College in 1929. She married Howard J. Morrison on May 10, 1941, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Savannah, with the Rev. William Brady of St. Paul’s and the Rev. Ernest Risley of St. John’s Episcopal Church officiating. Dr. Morrison was born on October 8, 1905, and served as a Lt. Commander in the United States Navy. Mary and Howard Morrison had two sons, Howard, Jr. and Mills, and a daughter, Mary.

Mrs. Morrison served on the Board of Curators of the Georgia Historical Society, as a member of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Georgia, and as a director of the Victorian Society in America.

She was very active in the preservation community in Savannah and received an award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Preservation from the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation. The Trust praised her work as having “a major impact in documenting the architecture of Savannah. Virtually every building’s date of original construction is known as well as the name of the builders, with specific reference to date of construction and appropriate architectural style.”

She was the author of John S. Norris: Architect in Savannah 1846-1860 (Beehive Press, 1980) and the editor of Historic Savannah: A Survey of Significant Buildings in the Historic and Victorian Districts of Savannah, Georgia (Historic Savannah Foundation, 1979).

Mrs. Morrison died on July 16, 1994, at age 86. Her husband, Dr. Morrison, died on June 13, 1965, age 59. They are both buried in Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia.

The Mary Lane Morrison Endowment was established in 1995 by her family to honor her love of and commitment to Georgia history.