Norma Louise Connell

She was born in Louisville, Kentucky on March 16, 1921. Norma married her husband of 65 years, Frank Harold “Dusty” Connell (deceased) and together they built a life and family, travelling from state to state as Dusty advanced in his career.

With each move this self-taught wife and mother honed her life skills. She had a flair for interior design and loved hunting for just the right antique, the best paint color and the perfect drapery or upholstery fabric. Norma would then refinish, paint, sew and create the most personal and comfortable of homes for her family. Norma loved gardening but as she grew older and found yard work too difficult, she taught herself to needlepoint and filled her home and those of family and friends with her original designs.

Her family’s fondest memories are of her legendary Thanksgiving dinners. The table impeccably set, dinner delicious and served on time to 20 or more guests including extended family and many friends; all home-cooked in her little galley kitchen. Norma, usually last at the table, would have everyone hold hands as grace was said. On occasion, small skirmishes would break out over the last scoops of her famous homemade onion dip!

Norma persevered through the near death of her son off the waters of Vietnam aboard the USS Forrestal, the death of her parents, her husband’s death in 2007, and the death of her first child, Barbara Anderson of Waukegan, IL., in 2008 and the recent death of her only son Robert S. Connell of Lexington, KY in November of last year.

As our family mourns the loss of our matriarch, the last of her generation, we will remember a strong willed, tenacious and sometimes unyielding leader who taught each of us about the strength of family, the love of home and the importance of good humor to carry us through life’s most difficult of times.

She is survived by her two remaining daughters Carolyn Frings (Johannes) of Roswell, GA and Janie Connell of Springboro, Ohio.

She also leaves behind nine (9) grandchildren; Sherry Auckley of Lafayette, IN; Jeffery Connell of Columbia, SC; Michael Mickler of Lafayette, IN; Scott Connell of Versailles, KY; Lissa Blankinship of Guatemala City, Guatemala; Kathryn Leigh Hoeflich of Washington, DC; Sara Zeiger of Abu Dhabi, UAE; Katherine Brown of Seattle, WA and Laura Frings of Atlanta, GA; ten (10) great grandchildren, one (1) great great grandson and various in-laws and out-laws.

A life well lived will be celebrated privately on August 24th at Noon with Norma laid to rest next to her husband and her parents at Resthaven Memorial Park in Louisville, Kentucky.

We wish to thank the many caregivers at the Lodge Retirement Community (her home for the last 12 years), Queen City Hospice and Griswold Home Care for their continued support and loving care.