Norman Paul Braly

1st Family: His parents were Jesse Edward and Catherine Ora Braly. He has two older sisters: Cindi and Andi. They lived on Juniper in Torrance. When Norm was a Senior in High School, his dad took a job in Visalia, so as not to oust someone else from their job. Norm didn’t want to move so he stayed with the Mosley’s on Onrado, an older couple from the church.

Education: Norm attended Fern-Greenwood, graduated from Torrance High, Class of 1976, and El Camino College.

Associations: Norm was in the Boy Scouts, on the swim team, the wrestling team, in a fencing club, a member of M.E.R.I.T. Mobile Emergency Radio Information Team, (that worked with the police as extra sets of eyes.), he played volleyball on the Church team at 1st Christian Church, was a member of Christian Wanderers, and in the Youth Group. He was a member of Sons of Confederate Veterans as he was a descendant of a Civil War soldier. He was involved in Civil War reenacting for the last 20 years (with Donna “the muffin lady”, Elisa and her husband Daniel, and 2 oldest grandsons Jesse and Kian).

Employment: Norm worked in the shipping department for Garrett AiResearch which became Allied Signal and then Honeywell. He was laid off and had to train his replacement.

2nd Family: Norm and Donna married in 1979. They lived in Redondo Beach for a few years till they bought the Kniessler home on Amapola from the Church. He enjoyed fixing up the house himself. Norm passed away 10 days shy of their 65th wedding anniversary. They have two children: Leah & Elisa.

Grandkids: Leah has 3 children: Jesse, Kian and Axel. Elisa has 2 children: Roxie and Donovan.

After Donna’s mom died, Norm and Donna moved to Scott St., Leah and her 2 youngest live on Amapola.

Norm liked Coors beer, his family, friends, trips with his buddies to the Mojave Desert to shoot guns and chat, Folger’s coffee, and he loved Civil War reenacting over the past two decades. Norm liked to backpack, camp, and travel. His screen saver on his phone was his youngest grandchild. He loved to watch the news, cruise Facebook, watch hockey on TV, and watch old black & white westerns and war movies.

Everyone wants to know what happened. Norm had hemochromatosis that gives you too much iron; that gave him cirrhosis. He was at stage 4 at least the last year that we know of. When he finally let me call the paramedics and get him to E.R., he already had sepsis. Donna thought he was just dehydrated and would get 1-2 bags of I.V. and go home. Four weeks later, they couldn’t get him nutrition or medicine and we just had to watch him pass. They had punctured his lung, it didn’t reinflate and they couldn’t fix it, he was too full of infection. He went peacefully with some of his family in the room with him. I think the family is all traumatized by this experience, whether they were there or not. He was in the E.R., then the hospital, then a Transitional Care unit, then to another hospital’s E.R., then ICU, then they put him in the day surgery ward that wasn’t crowded and he passed there on December 12, 2025.

We believe Norm is in heaven, able to eat, free from pain and happy to be chatting with everybody.

Thank you for your love, support, and prayers. I hope you enjoy the slideshow of his pictures. You can view the obituary and the slideshow on the Lighthouse Rice website.

Love,

Norm’s family