Norman George Manley

Norman George Manley, 90 yrs old, passed away on 2/26/2025 at New Hope Manor. Born November 28th, 1934 in Rockford, Illinois (per birth certificate, he was actually born in Westborough Wisconsin while visiting his mother Grace’s father Charles farm). He was preceded in death by his wife of 51-years, Jacquelyn (Jackie) Jeanette Mear. Norman is survived by his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren: son: Mark (Amy) Manley, son: Robert (Tracey) Manley, daughter Marcette (Don) Bingham, and daughter Susan Dorsey.

Norman graduated from West High, Rockford, Illinois while apprenticing as a Tool and Die Maker at National Lock, Rockford, IL. He married Jacquelyn (Jackie) Jeanette Mear (his Mear-Maid) in Rochelle, Illinois on May 7th, 1955. Norman built a house in Byron, Illinois on the Rock River and sometimes it was ‘in the river’. They then relocated to Volente, TX and built a house on the lake (this time farther above the flood zone). Norman volunteered with the Volente Volunteer Fire Department, opened his own shop Manley Molds, and then took a job at 3M where he worked until he retired at the age of 67. While at 3M he was awarded two patents and received one with his company, Manley Mold for a can crusher. Norman was a long time member of Bethany United Methodist Church, where he sang in the choir, volunteered with a missionary group who built 3-wheeled all terrain hand crank carts for people who were disabled due to landmines in other countries, and had a church group who played dominos regularly. He loved to build, create, and machine projects. He was always working on something, and after a short break would say “well, let's do something, even if it's wrong.”

Norman’s top near death experiences:

1) Premature at birth, born on the farm at his grandfather’s in Wisconsin, shortly after birth was pronounced dead by the midwife, but survived. His family returned to their home in Rockford, IL where the neighbor ladies all took turns providing heated water jars to put in his crib to keep him warm.

2) At 2yrs old he fell into the open floor furnace register that his father and uncles were working on. His father grabbed uncle Frank by his heels and lowered him into the furnace, Uncle Frank pulled Norman out. He was strapped to a rack to hold his feet still for months, until a young surgeon from out east, who could not get a job in Rockford because they didn’t recognize his credentials there, came to the house and took skin from his mother Grace and grafted it onto his legs (hospitals didn’t recognize skin-grafting at that time). It worked and he then had to learn to walk all over again.

3) During his young childhood:

a. he stepped on a nail and got blood poisoning; was told by the doctor when the black line gets to your heart you will die, penicillin was new and not readily available, but the doctor was eventually able to get some and saved his life.

b. He choked on a peanut, turned completely blue, this was before the Heimlich maneuver was known, he was able to finally get some air and lived.

c. Another time he fell through the ice at a pond 2-miles from his house, he had a difficult time finding the hole he fell through, managed to get to the nearby school to warm up, then finished walking to his house (was on the weekend, school should’ve been locked but wasn’t).

4) As a teenager he was in a bad car accident, went through the windshield into a barbed wire fence. Was taken to the hospital, put in an open bay on a gurney, and doctors gave up on him. His cousin Margie arrived, asked why no one was working on him and the doctor said they couldn’t do anything for him, she raised a fuss, and they went back to working on him, and he lived.

5) When his son, Mark, was 2-yrs old Norman broke his neck at Lake Louise, Byron, IL. He was lying face down in the water, unable to move, vision was getting darker and darker, said his goodbyes to himself, then his friend flipped him over, they left him on his back in the water until medics arrived. He was completely paralyzed for about a month, but after an all night prayer session his left side started to recover, but his right side stayed partially paralyzed forever. His wife Jackie would sneak in a beer to him so he could drink it through the straw. Once out of the hospital, he was in a full body cast with a head-rack and pin in his head. They couldn’t get him into a car so they bought a convertible that his doctor caught him driving around in. The doctor said “I told you that you could leave, I didn’t say you could drive!”

6) In Austin, in the late 80’s there was a strange disease that affected 8 people, 6 died from it, Norman and only one other person survived it.

A graveside service for Norman will be held on Sunday March 9th from 2:00PM to 3:00PM at Bagdad Cemetery, (400 N Bagdad Rd, Leander, TX 78641).