it wasn't hard to want more from life than farm country could offer.
In a house full of music, she taught herself guitar, then eventually fiddle.
But it was her voice that was her true instrument.
In the 70's, she chased a dream to the west coast. Her dream chased her back.
She picked up work singing for some local Country Bands, and was good at it.
She earned a living as a bookkeeper, but music was always her passion.
Still the rebel, even with her job, she could be seen riding from client to client, on a Harley in a flowing dress, fur coat and an Easy Rider red white and blue helmet. Her employer at the time, a respectable art agency strongly urged her to change her mode of transportation, so she traded the Harley on a Cordoba. That didn't work for her, so she dumped the Cordoba for a T-Bird. 460 4bbl. White-on-white-on-white.
That fit.
A brunette Suzanne Sommers.
But the dream still beckoned.
She eventually found herself back on the left coast, this time in California. And the car for her now was a 68 Charger, 440 6-pack, red with a maple leaf in the middle of the white roof. She called it the Norma Lee.
Take that, General Lee!
She adopted Norma Lee as her name, a truncated version of her given name, Norma Louise.
It wasn't long before she hooked up with the local Country Music scene, and then found the right music for her, Western Swing
She had some success, a few recordings. More than most of us could expect.
Writing music became a profitable sideline.
She still preferred performing, and did it whenever she could.
A number of years ago, some strange things started happening, her fingers weren't working properly.
Parkinson's Disease.
Playing music became a problem. But she still sang and wrote.
Then Parkinson's took her signing voice.
She still wrote and collaborated.
When her husband died last year, he had the forethought to set her up in an assisted care community. Still her own home, but help on-site if she needed it.
About a month ago they diagnosed her with cancer. Liver, gall bladder, lungs and tumours in her brain.
Music was her passion.
Poetry her forte.
She is singing again, with a great back up band, and a huge audience.
DJW
When I turned 30, she declared me her older brother.
Farewell to my younger sister.
Enjoy the music.
