Norma M. Williams

is honored with a Brick from Mark A. Williams and Marshall L. Williams.

Norma Milliner Williams was born in Oklahoma during the Depression. She is the daughter of Harlen and Juanita Couch Milliner and sister to three brothers. She learned many skills while growing up on their farm and helping the family with all aspects of farm life. Her parents were community leaders and from them she learned many of her values: a strong sense of responsibility, respect of all people, a strong faith in God, the importance of education, the love of books and learning, a non-judgmental nature and the importance of family and home life. Her mother was a remarkable woman and role model from whom she learned many of her homemaking skills.

She sets high standards of accomplishment, and she always excelled in her educational pursuits. She was the class valedictorian upon graduation from high school. She worked her way through her undergraduate study at Southwestern College and Oklahoma A and M while majoring in Home Economics Vocational Education. She completed this degree in three years and graduated with honors. Her teaching experiences were in Caldwell, KS, Fairview, OK, and Sterling, KS. She completed her MS Degree in Clothing, Textiles and Merchandising at Oklahoma State University again with honors Omicron Nu, Alpha Phi Sigma and Phi Kappa Phi.

After having been a stay-at-home mother to our son until his junior year of high school, she began employment as a cataloger in Library Media Services for the Wichita Public Schools. She had completed 60 hours above her Master's degree in Library Science and electives at Wichita State University. After 20 years at Library Media Services, she retired in 1992.

Upon retirement, she continues her pursuit of learning by auditing classes at WSU, continuing volunteering as church librarian at University United Methodist Church (30 years), traveling, gardening, keeping informed, supporting causes in which she is interested Churches United for Peacemaking, Global Learning Center, Peace and Social Justice, and Inter-Faith Ministry.

Here's to "Norm" --my wife, my love, my heroine, my lifetime partner.
Submitted by her devoted husband, Marshall Williams.

I am indebted to my mother for her selfless acts of bearing me and raising me according to a set of high standards. As a child who was high-spirited as children often are, I had my share of disagreements with her and often rebelled against her authority. Despite our differences during my childhood, I frequently enjoyed lengthy discussions with my mother on topics of interest to me, such as history and art.

Although my mother has always had a great appreciation for classical music, she never had the advantage of any musical training during her childhood, growing up on a small farm in Depression Era Oklahoma. She and my father both ensured that I was exposed to music and provided me with piano lessons for years, which allowed me an appreciation of music which I have enjoyed ever since. Our tastes in music may well have diverged, with my taste for the boogie woogie my father taught me and the hard rock of the late 60's and early 70's, but her foresight in providing me with music lessons allowed me a higher level of music appreciation than I otherwise would have.

I must thank my mother for providing support for my interest in American history. She emphasized the importance of reading and made sure I found my way at an early age into the best libraries Wichita had to offer (when the main public library was a Carnegie Library and when the WSU library was housed in Morrison Hall). Her emphasis on the importance of a good education is not surprising considering her masters level degree in home economics and her decision during middle age to earn hours toward certification as a librarian for the Wichita Public Schools as a cataloger. Along with my father, she provided me with travel opportunities as a child to museums such as the Smithsonian, and to sights such as Colonial Williamsburg, Gettysburg, Sturbridge Village, and Yorktown, to name but a few.

I will be forever indebted to my mother for unconditional love and her untiring devotion to my intellectual and moral development.
Submitted by her son, Mark Allen Williams

September 15, 1998