Pamela Morton Lester

Pamela Morton Lester died Sunday, December 8, 2019. She was born Pamela Rae Morton on November 20, 1939 in Kansas City, Missouri to Ray E. and Juanita Morton nee Wilson. Pam spent the earliest years of her life traveling with her mother as they followed her Naval Officer father up and down the eastern seaboard prior to WWII. After the war the family settled in Overland Park, KS and it was there her brother Michael Wilson Morton (Sr.) was born. Pam doted on her baby brother and they were constant companions.  Upon graduation from Shawnee Mission High School in 1957, Pam attended Kansas State College where she joined Pi Beta Phi Sorority.  She transferred to Washburn as a Junior, was a Delta Gamma social member and graduated with her degree in Elementary Education.  It was at Washburn that she met her husband, Stephen K. Lester, and they married on June 9, 1962 in the 1st Congregational Church of Topeka. Pam taught 5th grade in Topeka for one year before moving to Amarillo, Texas where Steve was stationed with the US Air Force. It was in Amarillo where they welcomed their 2 daughters, Stephanie and Susan. In 1966 they moved to Wichita and even though she was new to the city she jumped right in to the role of volunteer and club member. Pam reconnected with many of her sorority sisters as a member of  Pi Phi Alumnae Club and served on many committees, as President and was Awarded the National Evelyn Peters Kyle Award for Club Service. Pam was a longtime and very active member of PEO Chapter  EI and was President of the Wichita Junior League in 1980.  She was active in other numerous clubs throughout her life including the Sedgwick County Republicans, where she assisted and lead candidate campaigns.  She enjoyed investing and traveling with the 20/20 Investment Club, dining with her husband and other close friends in the LeGorge Dinner Club, Wit and Wisdom, and having coffee with the ladies in her East Y Exercise Group.  Pam was an avid cook and loved to entertain. Having lived in her College Hill home for almost 50 years, there are likely 1,000’s of guests that can attest to her being a “Hostess with the Mostest”, and it is only fitting that she was a member of the Thursday Afternoon Cooking Club. Pam was always a huge Big 8, Big 12, WSU and Kansas City Chiefs fan but she was truly fanatical about her K-State Cats, even during the winless years. She enjoyed playing tennis and taking “tennis trips” that ultimately just became shopping trips. Pam learned to play bridge in college and became quite the accomplished player, joining in several clubs over the years and playing up until a few weeks ago.  As busy as she seemed to be she was still very involved in the lives of her husband and their girls. Pam returned to work when they were in college as a Case Coordinator for the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office. She continued to attend and support all the activities of her daughters and her grandchildren. Known to her grandchildren as Ma, she was constantly finding just the right program or class for each child to attend so they could enjoy time together. Pam loved to travel and has made numerous trips to far away places, but her favorites were the ones that she took with each of her grandchildren, asking them to choose anywhere in the world and then taking them for their 13th birthdays.  Pam is survived by her husband, Stephen of the home, and daughters and sons-in-law, Stephanie and Dean Clark and Susan and Brian Kaplan, all of Wichita, her brother, Michael Morton Sr. of Estes Park, CO, grandchildren, Sydney Clark, Gannon Clark and Dub Steven, step-grandchildren, Chris Clark and Brooke Kaplan, nephews, Michael Morton Jr. and Jeffery Morton. Memorial Service will be at 3:00 pm, Monday, December 16, 2019, at Plymouth Congregational Church. Memorials have been established with: Plymouth Congregational Church, 202 N. Clifton Ave., Wichita, KS 67208; Wichita Area Panhellenic Alumnae Scholarship Fund, 611 N. Doreen St., Wichita, KS 67206. Downing & Lahey East Mortuary.