Lillian Morrison, a noted librarian, poet, and anthologist, died on Monday, January 27 at the age of 96, as reported in the New York Times and elsewhere. A coordinator of young adult services at the New York Public Library, Morrison collected rhymes and chants from her young patrons that she later compiled into anthologies, including Yours Till Niagara Falls (Crowell, 1950). Morrison also edited a collection of folk sayings, I Scream, You Scream: A Feast of Food Rhymes (August House, 1997). That book, a School Library Journal reviewer wrote, “has the tone of something that really is for kids, who all know the magic of a good, loud chant. Put a copy on your shelf, then put your ear to the window at recess, and see if you don't hear some of these short verses rising up from the chaos of the schoolyard.” "Lillian Morrison’s contributions to the world of children’s literature and librarianship were many,” said Ellen Ruffin, curator of the de Grummond Collection at University of Southern Mississippi, where Morrison’s papers are housed. “She spent more than forty years as a librarian and wrote children’s poetry books, an unusual combination of both a writer and a practitioner—proof positive of her commitment to children and books.” Jane Botham, former coordinator of children's services for the Milwaukee Public Library, remembers working for Morrison in the late 1950’s as an intern librarian at New York Public Library. “I remember Lillian as bright, personable, and athletic, with a wonderful New York accent,” she said. Botham invited Morrison to be part of a poetry event in Milwaukee shortly after the publication of her book Breakdance Kids (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1985). Morrison performed the poem onstage with a child who danced along. Her dedication to library services for children lead to her receiving the 1987 ALA Grolier Award for her contributions in stimulating the interest of young readers. Her books Sprints and Distances (Crowell, 1965) and Sidewalk Racer (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1977) were both chosen as American Library Association Notable books. Lillian Morrison was born on October 27, 1917 in Jersey City. She said of her early life, "Mine was a city childhood and our playground was the street. We jumped rope, roller-skated, played almost every kind of ball game....stoop ball, stick ball...," she said in an interview published in Lee Bennett Hopkins’s More Books by More People: Interviews with Sixty-five Authors of Books for Children (Visitation Press, 1974). She graduated from high school in the mid 1930s and used scholarships and money earned from working as a waitress to put herself through Douglass College at Rutgers University. After earning a BA in mathematics, she enrolled at the Columbia University School of Library Service, where she earned a graduate degree in 1942. She told Hopkins that she knew she was “in heaven” when she left her job as in the statistical department of Bamberger’s, a large department store in Newark, NJ, for a job as a filer at New York Public Library. “I was surrounded by books. The whole world opened up to me.”