PORT CLINTON — Mary Jane Morris, who brought compassion and clinical expertise to all facets of her nursing career, died Saturday in the Catawba Island Township residence she and her husband shared. She was 69.

Mrs. Morris, a longtime West Toledo resident, had glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer.

She retired in June, 2016, after 45 years in nursing, much of that on the campus of what is now ProMedica Toledo Hospital. For nearly 30 years, she was a vascular nurse with Toledo Vascular Institute, which became part of Jobst Vascular Institute.

A 1971 graduate of Ohio State University, she had a bachelor of science in nursing degree. She started her career in the intensive care unit at University Hospital in Columbus. After she and her husband, Steven, married in 1973, they moved to his hometown of Toledo, and she began to work in the ICU at Toledo Hospital.

“She was an excellent intensive care nurse,” said Dr. Ralph Whalen, a vascular surgeon. “She was very bright. She was very observant, very conscientious, and always had the patients’ welfare at the top of her list of commitments.

“She was sort of my right-hand person for 25 years, someone I could always depend on,” Dr. Whalen said. “She was wonderful at it.”

She made daily rounds with Dr. Whalen and Dr. Steven Gale and so stayed current on patients’ conditions — and was able to brief the doctors on lab results and convey patient and family concerns.

“We could have full confidence in everything she observed,” Dr. Whalen said.

On the intensive care unit, she attended to the details, even if it meant working late, said Carol Jepson, a nurse who first met her in 1978 and later worked with her at the vascular institutes.

“Her compassion toward her patients was unbelievable,” Mrs. Jepson said.

Mrs. Morris in 1985 was called on to be a clinical instructor for the final three years of the Toledo Hospital school of nursing, which closed in 1988. One former student nurse told Mrs. Jepson, “When I see a patient, I know what to check because of Mary Jane Morris.”

“She always had a smile on her face,” Mrs. Jepson said. “I still have patients who say, ‘Where is that little nurse who worked with Dr. Whalen?’ They remember her.”

She was born Sept. 27, 1948, in Cleveland, to Mary and George Beshara. She was a graduate of Bedford High School in Bedford, Ohio.

Her husband also attended Ohio State, and they met in Columbus. They were steadfast Ohio State football fans and attended the 2015 Sugar Bowl, which the Buckeyes won, allowing the team to play in — and take — the national championship game.

She enjoyed travels with her husband to Hilton Head, S.C., and Naples, Fla.

“She always reached out to people,” her husband said. “If we were in a crowd, she would be the one talking to people.”

She’d been a member of Gesu Church.

Surviving are her husband, Steven Morris, whom she married March 23, 1973; son, Ryan Morris; daughter, Kelly Morris; father, George Beshara; sisters Linda Meyer and Georgia Hauser; brother, Charles Beshara, and four grandchildren.

Services will be at 10:30 a.m. April 20 at St. Joseph Church, Marblehead, Ohio, with a gathering from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. April 21 at Stone Oak Country Club, Springfield Township. Arrangements are by the Thomas I. Wisniewski Funeral Home.

The family suggests tributes to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis.

Contact Mark Zaborney at mzaborney@theblade.com or 419-724-6182.

First Published March 23, 2018, 4:00 a.m.