Elizabeth E. Norris

SAN ANGELO, Texas — Elizabeth Norris died on October 26, 2013, at the Rotary House of Hope on the Baptist Retirement Community campus.

A memorial service will be held at the First Baptist Church of San Angelo, Texas, on Saturday, November 2, 2013, at 10:30 a.m.

A graveside interment service will be held in the Spring of 2014 at the Elmwood Cemetery, Carroll, Nebraska, at the Gemmell family plots, where Mrs. Norris will be buried alongside her husband, Charles Leonard Norris.

Elizabeth Norris was born January 28, 1912, in her parents' home outside Carroll, Nebraska. She was preceded in death by her husband, Charles Leonard Norris; parents Robert and Ellen Tharp Gemmell; brothers Donald, John, Ralph, Fred and Allan Gemmell; sisters Mary Elsie Whitney, Jeanne Margaret Smith and Jessie Martha Back; great grandson Guthrie Ellison Howard; and her husband's brothers and sisters, Judson, Lyman, and Raymond Norris, and Ellen Norris, Florence Stewart, and Martha Weaver.

She is survived by her children, Janel Howard (and husband Larry), Charles Norris Jr. (and wife Estelle), and Michael Norris (and wife Iva). Surviving grandchildren are Jeff Howard (and wife Edith Barrett with Whitman Barrett and Clara Howard); Kent Howard (wife Rebecca with Taylor and Riley); Charles Norris III (and wife Megan with Sara, Alexander, and Matthew); Laura Kaemper (and husband Lee with Aleksey); Paul Norris (and wife Kris with Ryan, Andrew, and Madison); and Phillip Norris (and wife Jeanne with Silas). Her sole surviving sibling is sister Wilma Kidd (and her husband Jesse). She also is survived by seventeen nieces and nephews and their families.

Elizabeth Norris was baptized in the Carroll, Nebraska, Baptist Church at age thirteen as public testimony of her declaring Jesus as her Savior. Her mother and father customarily called the family together daily for prayer and Bible reading. Her mother lovingly guided Elizabeth in seeking to serve the Lord.

Elizabeth Gemmell met Charles Leonard Norris at a church camp in Colorado. They were united in marriage in the Carroll, Nebraska, Baptist Church on December 25, 1935. The next day they, traveled by train to Clifton Hill, Missouri, where Charles was pastor of the Southern Baptist church. After several years in Clifton Hill, Charles was pastor of Baptist churches in Texas, Missouri (Ash Grove, Vandalia, Tarkio, and Marquand); and Colorado (Alamosa and Pueblo). He was director of missions in several Baptist associations in Missouri (Mt. Pleasant, Monroe, Mount Zion, and Stoddard County). In each of these settings, Elizabeth's ministry - as wife of the pastor and wife of the missionary - was loving the people.

She graduated as valedictorian of Carroll, Nebraska, High School in 1930 and received a General Elementary State Certificate at Wayne State Teachers College (Nebraska) in 1934. She subsequently received a Religious Education degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas; a Bachelor of Science degree in Education from Southeast Missouri State College at Cape Girardeau; and a Master of Education degree from University of Missouri at Columbia.

She taught in rural, one-room schools in Wayne County, Nebraska, in the early 1930s. In Missouri, she taught in a second-grade classroom in the 1960s in Dexter and at Fox Elementary School in Arnold during the summers. In the 1970s she taught remedial reading in Fredericktown, Missouri, where she also was assistant elementary counselor.

Many lives were blessed by Elizabeth Norris's beautiful Wagnerian soprano voice. She sang in churches and community choirs in Missouri, Colorado, and Texas. When Elizabeth and Charles traveled to southern Brazil July and August, 1972, Elizabeth sang duets with her sister Wilma Kidd - in Portuguese, the language of Brazil - in churches where her brother-in-law, Jesse Kidd, was missionary. In San Angelo, Texas, she sang in the community's Symphony Choral as well as the Sanctuary Choir and Glory Choir of First Baptist Church, where she was a member.

Elizabeth and Charles had been married over forty-eight years when he passed away November 17, 1984. Since 1991, she lived at Baptist Memorials Retirement Community, San Angelo, Texas, where she had many friendships and was widely known as loving, outgoing, and remarkably energetic. She was active in the Sarah Sunday School class of First Baptist Church.

In lieu of flowers, a donation may be made to Baptist Memorials Auxiliary, Rotary House of Hope or First Baptist Church-San Angelo scholarship fund.

Family and friends may sign the online register book at www.johnsons-funeralhome.com