Essentials
Born: 8 May 1914; Lone Star (Safford), Graham County, Arizona
Daughter of: Cicero MORRIS and Almira MERRILL
Married: George Heber JAMES (Jr.); 13 September 1931; Clifton, Greenlee County, Arizona
Died: 5 March 2002; Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona

Page contents
One-minute history
Life Sketch Read at Funeral Service
"Norma, This Is Your Life"

BY DARYL JAMES
FROM "JAMES/HATCH ONE MINUTE HISTORIES"
(1994; UPDATED 10 MARCH 2002)
     Norma Morris was born on a farm near Lone Star, Ariz., on May 8, 1914, to Cicero Morris and Almira Merrill. She was the ninth of 12 children.
     The farm had chickens, corn fields and watermelon patches, and the house where Norma's family lived had four rooms and a bathroom. "There was a great big living room and a great big sitting room," said Gerald James, Norma's son. "The kitchen was a huge room, and then there was a bathroom between the kitchen and the bedroom."
     Norma grew up in Lone Star and attended elementary school there. Norma was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in a big canal in Safford, Ariz., when she was 8 years old.
     She said attending Sunday School with her family was one of the highlights of her childhood. "We lived quite far out on our farm," Norma said. "It was always a treat to dress in our Sunday best and make the trip to Sunday School."
     When Norma reached ninth grade, she moved to Safford to continue her schooling. She lived with her brother, Howard, and his wife and earned money working as a waitress. She left school before graduation to work full time. During this period she met George Heber James, whom she married at Clifton, Ariz., on Sept. 13, 1931. Norma was 17 and Heber was 20 at the time of their marriage. They were later sealed in the Mesa Arizona Temple.
     Norma kept her job long enough after the wedding to earn enough money to buy material for her younger twin sisters to make new dresses for school. Her sisters were excited and thankful for Norma's sacrifice and remembered the gift throughout their lives.
     Norma wrote that she spent most of her married life in Phoenix, but she and Heber also owned a summer home in Pine Top, Ariz., a cabin in Pine, Ariz., and later a home in Thatcher, Ariz. At the time of this article (1994), Norma and Heber were retired and living again in Phoenix. Although Norma spent most of her married life as a master homemaker, she spent some time as a professional caterer, cake decorator and curtain maker.
     Together Norma and Heber had one son and six daughters. Jacalyn Sue, the fifth daughter, died shortly after birth in 1950 due to a bad blood transfusion. Jacalyn died in Phoenix and was buried in Thatcher at the city cemetery.
     Norma loved the Lord and gave her talents freely to the LDS Church. She served as a Primary president, a Relief Society counselor and a Mutual Improvement Association counselor. In her later life, she and Heber spent two days a week working in the Mesa Arizona Temple.
     "My parents have always been dedicated to the Church and have always tried to do what's right," Gerald said in 1994.
     Norma loved crafts and cooking all her life. For awhile she belonged to a sewing club. She entered crafts in county and state fairs and sold others at boutiques and craft sales. Almost all her children and grandchildren have pieces of her handiwork hanging on walls or sitting on shelves in their homes.
     Many people thought of Norma as being quiet and shy, but Gerald said she could also laugh and have a good time when she was around friends -- especially her sisters.
     Norma's 80th birthday party was a large family affair at her daughter Joyce's house in Glendale, Ariz. Alzheimer's disease afflicted Norma during the last decade or so of her life, and in the years before her death she retained little memory. She lived with Heber at their home at 4126 W. Eva St. in Phoenix until her condition grew rapidly worse early in 2002. She spent the final weeks of her life at a care home, and then died March 5, 2002, at Hospice of Arizona in Phoenix. She was 87.
     She was survived by Heber, her husband of 70 years, and 125 descendants.

-- Sources: 1. Typed, 2-page autobiography of Norma Morris. 3. Tape-recorded interview with Gerald Heber James (son) in October 1994 at Glendale, Arizona.

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Norma, This Is Your Life

BY NORMA G. NIX
FAMILY FRIEND
WRITTEN ABOUT 1950
     In days of old -- in ancient times
     When kings and pharoahs ruled --
     When pyramids were used as tombs
     And wise men oft were schooled --
     When mummies many times were wrapped
     In muslin, fine and white
     And buried deep in pyramids
     To never see the light.
     In those old days quite often though
     The past was buried deep --
     And mummies had for centuries
     Lain quietly asleep --
     Explorers came with shovel,
     With pick and spade at last --
     And with no sign of trouble
     They dug up the ancient past.

     Today we live in modern worlds
     With tools of every kind,
     With hammer, bits, electric torch
     And ascetalyne you'll find --
     Electric engines, atom bombs,
     H-bombs, lathe and last --
     But what a time I still have had
     In digging up the past.
     Cleopatra had her charms
     And history oft repeats them --
     But in our midst so soon to leave
     Is one whose charms unseats them.
     She isn't buried in a tomb --
     No pyramid stands guard --
     But I've never known a person's past
     To uncover -- quite so hard.

     But wait -- I still have a story.
     Call it history or fiction --
     Call it literature or fancy
     Or a novel of good diction --
     Call it past, or present or future --
     Call it love or peace or strife --
     Call it happiness or sorrow --
     But Norma: "This is your life."

     It began -- oh many years ago --
     Thirty-six years long,
     That nineteen fourteen set the treble
     For this cradle song --
     May the eighth in a cottage
     From Stafford not too far --
     Was born a little baby
     In a place they called Lone Star.
     Lone Star -- it sounds so peaceful
     As if sheep were there abiding --
     As though care and toil and sorrow
     Would forever be in hiding --
     Lone Star -- a little farming town
     So small and yet so nice --
     But after a baby's first wee cry
     So very full of spice
     And though the town had just a school
     And not a single store --
     It was forever famous
     Though it hadn't been before.
     But such a bouncing baby,
     And such a bundle of heaven,
     And such a wonderful mother and dad
     And brothers and sisters eleven.
     Yes such a precious baby
     Made the small town grow in fame --
     And Mr. and Mrs. Morris said:
     "Norma is her name."

     And so she cried and slept and laughed
     And cut her teeth and grew --
     And maybe she had tantrums
     But I doubt that -- don't you?
     And I suppose she often teased
     Her sisters and her brothers
     And took her turn at playing with
     And caring for the others.

     About this time, far to the south
     In the Land of the Siesta,
     Mr. and Mrs. Heber James
     Were celebrating la fiesta --
     For added to their family
     Was Norma's barefoot beau.
     A handsome red-faced baby
     Who was born in Mexico.

     Oh pyramids, your mystery
     Has nothing now on me --
     For to this part of Norma's life
     I couldn't find the key.

     But I am sure she went to school
     And had her barefoot beau --
     And pigtails flying in the breeze
     And smudges on her nose --
     And even though she's grown up now --
     And good as you can see --
     She often sat in closets
     That were dark as they could be.
     Can't you hear her wail of terror,
     Sisters -- years and years ago?
     She was just a little girl then
     But soon she had to grow.

     She grew and grew and grew and grew --
     And then she fell in love.
     And when I tell you her great age
     You'll say, "Why stars above!!!!" --
     She couldn't be an old maid
     Or someone's spinster aunt --
     She hadn't learned at fourteen
     Two words that say, "I can't."
     So what do you suppose she did,
     Though supposing isn't in it?
     At fourteen she fell right in love.
     And got engaged that minute.

     And though her fiance went away
     And left her all alone --
     She went with many other boys
     Who called her on the phone.
     And often, when Heber was away,
     And she was off a-dancing --
     Her feet would follow her partner
     But her thoughts were off romancing --
     Because she was so much in love
     Her heart was always true --
     But she spent many hours at home
     With nothing more to do
     Than wish and wish for Heber.
     And so they soon were married
     In the little town of Clifton
     Where the wedding party tarried.
     September the thirteenth of the year
     Nineteen-thirty-one.
     This was when Norma and Heber's trip
     Of matrimony begun.

     More of poem to come. ...

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Cicero MORRIS
Gad MORRIS
Norma
MORRIS
Lucy PARHAM
John PARHAM

CHILDREN WITH GEORGE HEBER JAMES (JR.)