GINNY MORGAN

Virginia “Ginny” Lee Townsend Morgan died Tuesday, August 30, from complications of breast cancer.

Born in Conway, Ark., on March 20, 1948, she was the youngest of six children of Evelyn Derbyshire Townsend and John Powers Townsend. She graduated from Conway High School and attended the University of Arkansas. It was during this time that she married Speer Morgan. The couple later divorced.

She completed her undergraduate degree at Stephens College and her master’s degree in counseling psychology at the University of Missouri. She worked as a play therapist for acute and chronically ill children at University Hospital in Columbia for many years.

In the early 1970s she began the serious study of death and dying, pursuing the views of many religions. In 1977 she became interested in Buddhism and began training to be a teacher. She studied with Ram Dass, Munindra-ji, Matthew Flickstein, and teachers from Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Mass., and Spirit Rock in Woodacre, Calif.

In 1993 she co-founded Show Me Dharma, a center for the study and practice of insight meditation, and has served as a guiding teacher since that time. In 1995 she also began to spearhead the expansion of Buddhist teachings in the Midwest through her role as president of Mid America Dharma. Besides bringing insight meditation to Missouri and the Midwest, she taught retreats throughout the country for many years, touching the lives of thousands of students.