By Rebecca Goodman
The Cincinnati Enquirer

GREEN TOWNSHIP - Martha Bolender Morrissey could wield a hammer.

As campaign manager for her husband, Hamilton County Judge William J. Morrissey, she took her children out on weekends to help pound campaign signs into lawns.

She also arranged for radio and television spots, scheduled her husband's speaking engagements and organized fund-raisers.

Mrs. Morrissey - known as Betty to most - died Wednesday of lung cancer at the home of her daughter, Melissa Morrissey Minella, in McMurray, Pa. The Green Township resident had moved in with her daughter last summer, one year after the death of Judge Morrissey. She was 80.

A lifelong west-sider, she graduated from Western Hills High School at 15, then completed a program at a local business college. During World War II, she worked in the Cincinnati office of the Air Force Ferry Command, her daughter said.

She and William Morrissey married in 1945.

He was elected to the judgeship in 1966 and retired in 1996. In addition to running his re-election campaigns, she helped raise money for the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association.

Mrs. Morrissey was a member of the Hamilton County Republican Club, the Women's Republican Club and the Green Township Republican Club.

In addition to her daughter, survivors include William J. Morrissey III of Bridgetown; a sister, June Coy of Cheviot; and three grandchildren.

The funeral is 10:30 a.m. today at Radel Funeral Home, 650 Neeb Road, Delhi Township. Burial follows at St. Joseph Cemetery & Mausoleum, 3819 W. Eighth St., Price Hill.

Memorials: Salmon P. Chase College of Law, Northern Kentucky University, Nunn Drive, Highland Heights, KY 41099; or the American Cancer Society, 11117 Kenwood Road, Cincinnati, OH 45242.

---

E-mail rgoodman@enquirer.com