Norma Aleen Johnson Enerson was born on the family farm in Chetek, WI, on May 23, 1919. For 105 years and one month, Norma lived a life of love, joy, stoicism, kindness, friendship, and faith while using her amazing small motor skills to dazzle folks with her secretarial capabilities and her superb baking, canning, sewing, and painting skills.

When Norma was 13 months old, her mother died from blood poisoning after delivering twin girls who also died. As was the custom of the time, when Norma was three years old, she was sent to live with an aunt and uncle until she was seven and her father had remarried.

Her stepmother died in childbirth when she was eleven. Therefore, summer vacations were spent with a variety of aunts and uncles. During the school year, different housekeepers took care of her and her twice widowed father and half-sister. Her father remarried for a third time when Norma was in eighth grade. Again, it was decided she should live with relatives so the newlyweds would have time alone. In an autobiography Norma wrote just a decade ago, she said, “I can’t remember ever crying about moving place to place as everyone was always kind to me.”

Her elementary schooling was in a one room schoolhouse a mile and a half from the farmhouse. During the winter months, she would ski to school. Because there were only two children in fifth grade, the grade was eliminated. Norma moved to sixth grade and subsequently was always the youngest in her class.

To attend high school, most country students moved into town for the school week and boarded with family friends. Since this was during the depression, payment for boarding was often in food instead of cash. All students went home for lunch, and Norma fixed herself a fried egg sandwich every day for her four years of high school. During summer months, Norma would work on the farm and was paid for helping cultivate fields, cooking for extra hired men, calling the cows, and doing housework.

After graduating from high school, Norma attended the Minneapolis Business College and won numerous awards for her typing speed, shorthand finesse, and bookkeeping accuracy. However, since she was only 17 when she graduated from Business College, she returned home to wait for her 18th birthday before looking for a job. She was hired as Executive Assistant to the Personnel Director of the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis. She loved this position and remembered this work experience her entire life.

During the summer of 1937, Norma attended Luther Park Bible Camp in Chetek, Wisconsin, and met the love of her life, Earl Enerson. They were subsequently married in August 1942 after he graduated from St. Olaf College. Instead of beginning a career, Earl enlisted in the Navy, and Norma and their first child, David, followed him from base to base. During Earl’s time in the Pacific Theater, Norma returned to Wisconsin to live with family, but post the war, she and Earl settled in Joliet, Il. However, both of their families were anxious for them to relocate permanently to Wisconsin, and they moved to Ladysmith, Wi in the late 40’s and called this community home for the next 35 years.

While raising a young family of four children, Norma also was involved in the typical organizations of the time. She was president of the PTA; chaired the Hope Lutheran Church Ladies Aid; led the planning of the Smorgasbord, a church fundraiser; was a Girl Scout Leader and volunteered at the assisted living facility.

Out of many leadership positions, it was her work as president of the high school’s first Foreign Exchange Student program (AFS), which combined her fundraising aptitude with her communication skills to insure a successful and stable organization. She and the first (1963-1964) foreign exchange student from Finland have remained in touch for the last six decades. Norma’s typing skills gave her the opportunity to regularly correspond with additional foreign exchange students. (Plus, she also typed her childrens’ term papers.) In fact, she used the spaghetti sauce recipe of an Italian student for years and attended the wedding of a Norwegian student.

After raising her family and her husband’s retirement, Norma and Earl moved to Lake Couderay in Hayward, WI. Her activities outside the home slowed although she remained committed to church activities and in home entertaining. In 1977, they bought a condo in Bonita Beach, Florida. They enjoyed the Florida lifestyle and entertained frequently. The condo also was a favorite spring vacation destination for many family members.

Norma loved a cookie and coffee; a game of Scrabble; a glass of wine; crossword puzzles; fine fabric; a good book; socializing; traveling; golfing; writing her Christmas list in shorthand; baking dozens of cookies for Christmas; church hymns; playing bridge; and “Murder She Wrote".

After her husband’s death in 2004, Norma lived alone for 15 years until she was 100. She moved to Water’s Edge Care Center in June 2019. She was the oldest person in the Care Center when she died on June 28, 2024, at 105 years old.

Norma was preceded in death by her husband, Earl Hilbert Enerson, her son, David Earl Enerson, and her grandson, Darren Kenneth Quintenz, she is survived by her brother, Allan Johnson of Chetek, WI; her daughters, Susan (Kenneth) Quintenz; Carol (William) Mestelle; Elaine Babbitt; ten grandchildren and twenty-five great grandchildren.

A Memorial Service celebrating Norma’s life will be held on Saturday, August 31, 2024, at 11:00 AM at Grace Lutheran Church,10237 N Greenwood Lane, Hayward, WI, 54843, followed by a luncheon. In lieu of flowers, donations in Norma’s memory may be sent to Grace Lutheran Church, PO Box 881, Hayward, WI. 54843. A private interment will be held at Greenwood Cemetery.

Last Update: Jul 15, 2024 9:19 am CDT