Larkspur Conservation – Nashville, Tennessee

Obituary

Deborah Morisett Gugala passed away in the early hours of May 1, 2023, in Nashville, Tennessee. With her daughter, Elizabeth Aho (nee Gugala), and her husband, Gary Gugala, near her bed, she left peacefully. She was 70 years old.

Born on September 2, 1952, to Harold and Elmira Morisett of Mount Clemens, Michigan, Deborah contracted polio and spent much of her first years physically removed from family. Despite the disease’s physical effects, she flourished in both academics and piano, studying music at Siena Heights College (now Siena Heights University) and graduating summa cum laude in 1974.

Following her degree, she established herself as a music teacher, offering private lessons in Mount Clemens. Foreshadowing her career and ministry, she would meet her husband, Gary, at St. Ephrem Catholic Church in 1980. The two began dating in 1981 and married the following year. Over the next three, they had three children — Jonathan Raymond in 1982, Simon Peter in 1983, and Elizabeth Anne in 1984. All were raised with a musical education and a Christian faith.

With her husband and children, Deborah lived in or near Detroit, Michigan, for more than a decade. During this time, she deepened her faith, finding a community at the Salvation Army in Royal Oak, Michigan. It was through the Salvation Army that the couple followed a longtime call for ministry, and so, with the sale of their home and small business, they moved their family to Chicago, Illinois, in 1997 to attend the College for Officer Training. After their graduation in 1999, they relocated to Kansas City, Missouri, where they assumed leadership of the Salvation Army Northland Corps.

Over the course of a 20-year career, Deborah and Gary would achieve the rank of major and lead churches in Alma, Michigan; Madison, Indiana; and Pittsburg, Kansas. Deborah would achieve numerous awards during her time with the Salvation Army, including being named the Pittsburg Area Chamber of Commerce Woman of Distinction in 2016. She and Gary would retire in 2017.

After years of cross-country moves, Deborah’s heart yearned for a place of her own, and she and Gary purchased a house in the Madison neighborhood of Nashville, Tennessee, for their retirement. There, she and Gary attended the Salvation Army Nashville Citadel and Inglewood Baptist Church. Deborah established a home in which her family, long separated by physical distance over the previous decades, would meet, and its rooms were soon filled with the scent of vanilla, the sound of laughter, and her knitted shawls and sweaters. Her three Nashville-based children and a growing number of grandchildren were drawn together through her presence. Weekly family meals, along with celebrations of holidays, birthdays, weddings, and births, brought her deep fulfillment, even as her body began to fail.

Post-polio syndrome, the result of her childhood illness, advanced over her adulthood and continued in her later years. After her motor skills deteriorated and severe fatigue set in beyond practical management, she entered hospice care in November 2021. But even in her weakened state, she built admiration among her care staff, mended fences with her siblings, and remained a constant in the lives of her family. Already, she is greatly missed.

Deborah is survived by her husband of nearly 41 years, Gary; her children Jonathan (with wife Erin Akery), Simon (with wife Tracy Gugala), and Elizabeth Aho (with husband John); and grandchildren Benjamin, Peter, Ethan, Matti, and Josephine. She is also survived by her brothers Sandy and Brad Morisett and sisters Michele Morisett and Joelle Coleman.

Per her wishes, Deborah will be interred in a private ceremony at Larkspur Conservation in Westmoreland, Tennessee. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 6, at Inglewood Baptist Church (3901 Gallatin Pike, Nashville), with a reception lunch to follow at The Salvation Army Nashville Citadel (425 Neelys Bend Road, Nashville). In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you call your mother, which is something Deborah loved to receive.