Josephus Gaston NORMAN
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: May 22, 1922 - Henderson County, North Carolina
Christening:
Death: Sep 3, 1986 - Jacksonville, FL
Burial: Sep 1986 - Warren Smith Cemetery, Jacksonville Beach FL
Cause of Death: right parietal brain aneurysm
Events
1. Occupation in mail carrier; factoryworker
2. Military Service: in Sgt. US Army Airforce, WW II Pacific Arena; stationed in Guam
3. Retirement: in Disabled from back problems about age 58
Parents
Father: Ossa Lee NORMAN (1893-1978)
Mother: Pauline Belle PATTERSON (1893-1978)
Spouses and Children
1. *Nelle Livingstone BOOKOUT (Oct 19, 1922 - )
Marriage: Jul 13, 1944 - Greenville, South Carolina
Status:
Children:
1. Josephus Gaston NORMAN Jr. ( - )
2. Laura Lee NORMAN ( - )
3. Joey NORMAN ( - )
Notes
General:
Joe was born in Flat Rock, NC to Pauline and Lee Norman, the second son and fourth child of their marriage. His older brother Noel was his constant companion as a boy and they had adventures in the forests and on the banks of the Green River, where he began his love of the woods, long walks, and observing wild life. Among Joe's chores as a boy was taking the cow to pasture and bringing it back to the barn at night. The family lived in a small home owned by Pauline's father and there was no pasture on the property, so the cow had to be taken down the road where they rented use of a pasture. He also milked the cow. As a school child, Joe had a serious bout with typhoid fever, which kept in home from school almost one year. Typhoid was common in the mountains and often led to death, but his mother's nursing care brought Joe back to health. His father was absent from the house Monday through Friday for much of Joe's childhood because his job was in the Asheville Post Office. These were the days of the Great Depression and jobs were very scarce, too scarce to turn one down just because it was in another town. Before he got the Post Office job, Lee had worked as a clerk in a grocery store and had even moved to Miami, Florida to work in a grocery with other relatives, as he attempted to support the family during hard times. Joe's mother had her hands full with seven children.Medical:
Joe liked school and in high school was a basketball player and active in the school thespian group. In his senior year, the drama club traveled to the State Drama Festival in Chapel Hill, NC to present their play, Enoch Arden. Joe was the male lead and Flat Rock High School won first place. He graduated as valedictorian of his class after the 11th grade, which was the final year of school in those years. Joe was strongly affected by the death of his boyhood best friend. After graduating, he worked with Noel in Blue Bird ice cream stores in Brevard and Asheville. With his first paycheck, he bought his mother a mantle clock which she kept all her life and which Joe and Nelle received after her death. He was always thoughtful of his mother, and added money to the household budget from his earnings on a regular basis. Having lived through the hard times of the depression, Joe always valued a paycheck in hand over the promise of something that might accrue if one pursued another course. No one in the family, including Joe, thought about college for any of the Norman siblings.
In the early 1940's, Joe got a job with the Ecusta Paper Company in Pisgah Forest. There he worked in the physical testing laboratory. Soon he came to know a young woman named Nelle who was working as a chemist for Ecusta. The World War was growing daily and the draft was shaping the lives of most young men. Joe realized his draft number would be called and decided to enlist in the Army Air Corps. He had hopes of flying and really did not relish the infantry. Early testing by the Army gave him the opportunity to go to officers' candidate school after basic training, but he declined. He served his basic training in Ft. Myers, FL and he was then trained to be a gunner on the B-26's in Caspar, Wyoming. Thoughts of Nelle proved irresitable and he came home on leave in July 1944 and they were married in Greenville, SC in a Methodist parsonage by Rev. Shackelford. His sister Ruth and her husband Vernon stood up with them. Together Nelle and Joe took the train to Caspar where they secured a room in a private home.
One day Joe did not return home as expected and after some hours Nelle's anxiety began to mount. Inquiries revealed that Joe had blacked out during a training flight because his oxygen mask was defective. He was hospitalized in a coma and it was several days before he regained consciousness. His health returned but he was grounded because of this incident. The squadron to which he had been assigned left for Europe and were part of the D-Day invasion. He however, was sent to Salina, KS to be retrained as a ground crew chief on the new B-29's. Then he was stationed at Lincoln, NB briefly in preparation for transfer to the war theater.
In Salina, Laura was born and shortly afterward Joe was sent to the Pacific and stationed on the island of Guam. He rose to the rank of Technical Sargent. He never spoke with his children about these days, but he told Nelle of one horrible night that he awoke to find a Japanese soldier in his tent. The island was supposed to have been cleared of the enemy, but there were stragglers hiding in the jungle and this one was searching the tent for food or weapons. Joe challenged him and a hand to hand fight ensued in which they each struggled for their life. Joe managed to kill the Japanese soldier and for years would wake at night with bad dreams of that fight.
The experiences of war were not easy for Joe to leave behind. After his honorable discharge, he traveled to his parents' home and stayed there for over six weeks before Nelle learned he was home. Nelle had returned to Charlotte and spent the last year of the war sharing a home with her sister Frances. Lucille remembers her father insisting to Joe that he must go to his wife and child and care for them.
Nelle and Joe first rented a small, furnished house that belonged to a Florida couple. It was located on Kanuga Road. When they moved in Uncle Jennings brought them groceries to stock the pantry and a live chicken. Nelle had no idea how to dress a fowl and was struggling with the job when Uncle Jennings returned and finished the dirty deed. Ecusta Paper Company complied with the law and provided Joe with the same job he had left before the war, but at the same pay which was $35 a week. Other men who did not go to war were making 50% more than that. Joe took the job even though Nelle urged him to try to use the GI Bill to go to college. He felt he had to be earning a living. He traveled from Hendersonville to Pisgah Forest on a company bus. When this house was sold, they moved to a little house on Deer Park Farm, between Pisgah Forest and Brevard which they rented for $12.50 a month. Their neighbors were the Dixons, who were tenant farmers on the property. Frances Dixon proved to be a good neighbor. The house was in poor condition, with spaces between the floor boards that let light in. Joe and Nelle white washed the walls and had Sears install new linoleum to cover all the floors. Joe would walk to work, two miles down the railroad tracks. He helped feed the family by trapping rabbits and sometimes other varmits that Nelle had no idea how to cook. Once there were baby possums in the tub. Laura can remember taking walks with her father up the hill behind the house and him telling her they were taking the high road..."some take the low road, but we take the high road, remember that". The family was living on Deer Park Farm when Joe, Jr. was born in August 1947.
About 1949, the family moved to a house they purchased for $6,500 in Pisgah Forest, just a few blocks from the plant. The house had two bedrooms downstairs, a bath, a living dining area, a kitchen and a large back porch, where the ringer washing machine was kept. It had a second story that was unfinished when it was bought. There was a front porch where one could enjoy the cool breeze. Nelle had a flower garden along the side of the house and the whole family worked on a vegetable garden in the back. Behind the house was a wooded area where the kids roamed and climbed trees and created "roads" and hideouts. The house was stained brown with white trim.
Joe got a job in the newly built Olin Mills cellophane plant, which was a part of the larger Ecusta operation. His job was very dangerous. He was required to mix the chemicals which were used to coat the cellophane to make it waterproof. He would have to go to the underground storage area to dig out gun cotton for the mixture. This was highly explosive and had to be handled very carefully. At one time, the company sent Joe to Iowa for special training in handling these dangerous chemical. He was away from the family for six weeks. He was working rotating shifts, with the shift changing each week. The worst shift was the "graveyard shift" from 11 pm to 7am.
In his off time, Joe built chicken coops, and began to finish the attic of the house. He constructed two bedrooms and a half bath and the family rented these rooms to plant workers to supplement the family income. Once Joe tried to help his younger brother Lee by giving him a place to live, but Lee was young and wild and it did not work out. Joe and Nelle were able to buy their first car in 1951. It was a Model A Ford and Joe bought it for $50 in Hendersonville. On the way home he had two flat tires and was very late arriving. All the family was anxious for his safety but amazed at the wonder of a car, even if it were barely running. The good thing about a Model A was that it was a simple machine and almost anyone could tinker with it and get it running.
Often a Sunday afternoon's entertainment was taking a ride in the car. Once the family had driven up into the forest. On this day, the brakes failed in the car and Joe was steering around twisting mountain curves and rolling downhill faster and faster, using the gears to brake. We made it! After that Model A, the second car was also a Model A, then a 48 Plymouth followed by a 53 Chevrolet Bel Air.
Joe built a swing for the children and would take them on walks in nearby Pisgah National Forest. He taught them to "walk like an Indian", quietly and respectfully in the woods. He worked rotating shifts at the factory. Every week his schedule changed and this led to constant exhaustion and moodiness.
The family got their mail at PO Box 16, Pisgah Forest, NC. The Post Office was about 2 miles down the highway and of course one would have to walk there to get the mail. If you were really lucky there might be a piece of candy or some other small treat from the store to make the walk pleasant. Their next door neighbors were the Capells. Murial Capell was always there to help and her husband, a plumber, was ready to lend a hand. Next to the Capells were the Ramers, Annabelle, Chuck and son Billy. On the next road were the Dickensons and daughter Ann. They got the first TV in all the neighborhood in 1952 around Thanksgiving. Everyone of the neighbors had to see this new invention and the Macy's parade that was being featured. The image was snowy and barely recognizable, but even so seemed like a miracle. To go to town, before they had a car, the family would walk about one mile over the mountain to Highway 64 and hail down a bus. Groceries or other goods would be carried home. Bread and simple staples were available at a little store about a half mile away. The arrival of the car however made life much easier. Travel was then possible to Asheville (30 miles and more than an hour away by mountain roads), to Hendersonville to see Joe's family, or even to Shelby to see Nelle's family.
After living for 6 months in Apartment B-4, Saphire Manor, in 1953 the family moved into Brevard to 110 Laurel Lane, a house they built from plans. It had three bedrooms one bath and a full basement. It was on a lot that sloped steeply back to a Jumping Creek. Joe built up the front yard so that it was level and made a rock garden along the driveway. Many hours were spent grading the lot, but finally it was finished and a large garden grew in the backyard. A butterfly bush and a white, climbing rose were planted in the front yard. Alyssum grew in the rock garden. Gladiola came up in the spring. Joe built monkey bars for the kids and a swing. He planted a sweetgum tree by the front sidewalk. He constructed a concrete golf hole at the end of the front walk. The kids loved competing with him to sink a putt.
The house siding was natural stained redwood. The trim was white. A picture window looked out on the front yard. The master bedroom was on the front of the house as was the living room, and dining area. Laura's room was on one corner of the back of the house and the kitchen in the other corner. Joe's room connected the kitchen to the hall to the other bedrooms and bath. There was a high set of stairs going out of the kitchen to the backyard and a door to the basement stairs. There was a bar for eating in the kitchen. The family ordered an unfinished dining room table, chairs and corner china cabinet, which they finished in oak. The living room had a long, chartreuse colored sofa, a wicker chair and a Haywood Wakefield chair.
Joe continued to work shifts, which kept him from many of the children's activities. But he still taught the kids how to fly a kite and took them for long walks in the woods. He loved baseball and taught the kids to bat and pitch. Nelle went to work in 1953. For vacations, the family had a homemade trailer they took camping to Mills River Campground and also to Myrtle Beach State Park. Other times they rented a house near Myrtle Beach for a week. They bought a piano and the kids had lessons. July 4th was a big day for the family. They went to the community celebration at Camp Strauss, where pie eating contests, greased pole climbing, and other fun contests were the order of the day. In 1955 they bought a TV. After supper, the family would gather to watch Father Knows Best, or I Love Lucy, or the $64,000 Question. The kids liked Howdy Doody and the Mickey Mouse Club. Joe watched baseball whenever he had a chance and enjoyed watching boxing. Their neighbors were the Loftis's and the Monroes. The family had a mixed breed, black and white dog named Greet and a cat named Von (short for Von Walkerbarth). The family attended Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.
Joe decided to make a change from the factory work he was doing. He began by taking a correspondence course in radio repair, but was never able to turn that into a job. Then he studied telegraphy, which led to him moving the family to Kansas City, MO in 1959, so that he could pursue further training in telegraphy. The house was listed for sale and the furniture used as a down payment on a new house trailer. This would be the family home for the next two years. It was 34 feet long and had a master bedroom, a bath, a sleeping area for Joe, Jr, a kitchen and living area. Laura slept on the sofa bed. The family lived in Linden Trailer Park near Gashland, MO for about one year. Joe went to school and worked evenings for the Union Pacific Railroad. He "carded trains". Each train car that came into the switching yard had to have a card put on it indicating its destination. As the train rolled by he filled out a card appropriately and placed it on the moving train. Temperatures outside in the evening were often subzero. The kids gave Joe a handwarmer as a Christmas present, hoping to ease the cold.
When he completed his course, the Union Pacific Railroad wanted to hire him, but the family wanted to be closer to family in North Carolina, so Joe began to look for work in Florida. Florida seemed the nicest place of all to live and Jacksonville was selected because it was within a day's drive of NC. The FEC Railroad gave him an interview and hired him to work as a telegrapher in Lakeland Florida. All he had to do was pass their physical examination. Then his dreams collapsed with the news that the examination had revealed extremely small spacing between his vertebrae and degenerative back trouble. (Apparently poor nutrition as a child caused his spine to be more compressed and reduced his natural height.) On this evidence the railroad withdrew their offer of employment and made it known to him that no railroad would hire him with his back condition. Joe came back to Missouri defeated. After much soul searching the decision was made to move to Florida anyway and look for some kind of work. Nelle felt she could find certain work as a teacher.
Joe bought a car for $200 and hauled the trailer to Florida himself because he did not want to pay out the monies for a professional move. It was a dangerous trip as the car was actually inadequate for the job. He planned the itinerary carefully so as to avoid mountainous terrain which the car with that weight in tow could not handle. The car's brakes were burned out and the transmission damaged when he got to Florida. When he reached the outskirts of Jacksonville, he set up the trailer in Dinsmore at the Blue Dolphin Trailer Park. He soon found work at Perrett's Dairy, which was just one mile away. He drove a milk delivery truck, taking milk on a daily basis to residential customers. One Sunday, when he was out walking, he noticed smoke coming from a dairy building. He ran to the building, called the fire department, got a hose and tried to put the fire out. At one point he jumped from a loading dock. This jump injured his back and he was confined to bed in severe pain for some weeks. He was hospitalized for treatment that included prolonged traction. Although he had been paying for Gulf Life medical insurance, the company failed to pay his medical expenses, pointing to a loop hole in the contract that said he had not yet worked three months for his employer and therefor was not covered. The family was then saddled with over $5000 in debt. Two years later spinal fusion was performed on his lumbar region. During this two years he was unemployed or underemployed in jobs such as being an ice cream man or paper carrier. He worked in a Direct gas station for a time. His back did not improve and he could not hold a job due to continuing symptoms. His spirit was damaged even more than his back. He was a very independent man who found his identity in earning his way and caring for his family. To fail at this was to fail at life. It was a hard blow from which to recover. The surgery itself kept him in bed 6 weeks and unable to work for 6 months.
Just before the lumbar surgery, Joe took the Civil Service examination for work in the Post Office. He scored extremely high and a job looked likely within six months. In 1961, he secured a job with the Post Office. Somehow this seemed to finally give him back a sense of security and respect. His father and his grandfather had also worked for the post office. Joe was well loved by the patrons he served on his mail route. Navy wives found him ready to help with minor repairs, shut-ins could depend on him to bring them stamps and check on them, children found he would have a piece of gum or candy for them. He took pride in doing a good job and being a good neighbor. His regular hours and regular pay allowed the family to live a more normal life. He took pride in his work and he did a good job.
After staying briefly in an apartment on West 18th Street, the family moved to 2731 Pine Summit Drive East in the Arlington area of Jacksonville in 1960. They were able to assume a mortgage on this two year old home since their home in Brevard had finally sold. The purchase price was $13,500. This was a three bedroom, 2 bath concrete block home. It was unairconditioned. The carport, living room and children's bedrooms were on the front of the house. A sceened porch, the dining room, the kitchen, the baths and the master bedroom were on the back of the house. The house was situated on a corner lot. The house had hardwood floors and knotty pine cabinets in the kitchen. Green wool area rugs covered the living room and dining room floors. Everyone celebrated when a window-mounted airconditioner was bought for the dining room window. In 1964 in this house, the family survived hurricane Hugo, which left them without electricity for two weeks.
The children attended Terry Parker High School and the family were members of St. Matthew's Lutheran Church, which was just across Merrill Road from their home. During these years Joe tried to help his sister Ruth by bringing her from NC to stay with him. He found her a job and she stayed for a few months. He and Nelle also bought a beach cottage at 208 35th Ave S, Jacksonville Beach. It had been a garage apartment. It became a place to escape to on the weekends. After Laura married Faiz, they helped to install a modern kitchen in the garage area. In 1973, Faiz built an extension to the house and Joe and Nelle moved from Arlington to the new home. They sold the house in Arlington for $17,000. Joe welcomed Faiz to the family and was able to cross cultural barriers to make a friend of him.
Both Joe and Nelle loved the beach life. The enjoyed long walks on beach, early mornings at seaside, shark teeth hunting, and bike rides. Going to McDonalds on the bikes for a Egg McMuffin became a weekend habit.
Joe found himself with more symptoms coming from his spine, including numbness in his hand and pain in the neck. He eventually had to have cervical fusion. After this surgery, he returned to work, but the Post Office began to harass him about the time he took to deliver his route. At one point an efficiency expert followed him and made a report that he was spending one second too long at each stop. He was stiff from surgeries and for sure had to move more carefully than a 20 year old. Joe was quite upset and discouraged by the atttitude of his bosses and finally realized he was being forced into disability retirement at about age 58. He expressed a feeling that his government, in the form of the post office, was letting him down. He had served it with honor and they did not honor him.
In retirement Joe found many activities to enjoy. He became a Master Gardener through the Florida Agricultural Extension Service. He extended his natural green thumb into helping others with plant and horticultural questions. He started a grape arbor at the beach house and a fish pond and many varied plantings. He continued to write poetry as he had always done sporadically. He read and loved Frost. He took a writing course at Florida Junior College and excelled in it. He took a computer class and the family bought an Apple computer. He often could be found in his "office" in the second story of the old side of the house. It was unairconditioned, but he had always worked without airconditioning, and he loved the sea breeze coming in the windows. There he would read and write. He spent hours with his grandchildren, showing them the wonders of the beach and the woods, where he could find foxes, deer and other wildlife.
Joe and Nelle went to Europe, visiting Great Britain, France, and Germany. They went on a vacation to the west, seeing Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. Visits were made to Joe's house in Seattle, where Joe enjoyed a professional baseball game and Nelle loved the race track. Both enjoyed the wonderful mountains and forests of the Northwest. Joe said it felt like coming home. He seemed particularlly invigorated and happy when walking in the woods with his son. Joe Jr. remembers his Dad perusing a guide to lowland walks around Puget Sound published by the Mountaineers, a hiking club, and stating that the Mountaineers seemed like his kind of people.
In the 1970's Joe lost his mother and then his father. He seemed to lose his way for some time. He had chosen to marry someone outside of the community and then move far away. All the rest of the family remained in the Hendersonville area and Joe felt more keenly than ever the distance, both physical and emotional that had developed between him and his family.
Joe always had a strong sense of service. He took care of neighbors and those on his route. He did what was right and expected others to do likewise. He was always upset when family or others failed to live up to his expectations. He always thought of himself as a "mountain boy", not so sophistcated or eductated as some. He never truly acknowleged his own intellect. He was happiest in nature, taking a long walk. For years he was haunted by the war and also by some sense of failing to get his father's approval. Having an absent father when he was young left him with a yearning for a father's attention. All these things made him strive to help others.
He was six feet tall, with hazel green eyes that lightened as he aged. He kept his dark brown hair until after 60 years old when it began to turn grey at the temples, but did not recede. He was always slender. He had large hands that were sweet to hold as a child and careful when he was mending or making something. He had a way with words and a careful habit of observing the natural world that gave his writings humor and focus. Laura remembers a story about where the toad lived, which grew out of his daily observation of a paticular toad. He also had a temper that could explode for seemingly no reason. He kept a lot inside and it seemed to erupt periodically.
On Labor Day in 1986, Joe suffered a brain aneurysm of the right parietal area of the brain. He had been complaining of headaches for months. At one point he had a CAT scan of his brain, which was negative. He believed his pain was sinus trouble and perhaps overmedicated on sinus medication components of which have now been identified as causing strokes. He never regained consciousness after this stroke and died two days later in Memorial Hospital. He left a big hole which no one else could fill in the family.
Right parietal brain aneurysm high blood pressure lumbar and cervical fusions neck fusion