Obituary for Belize RPCV Evelyn Norton



At 65, she joined the Peace Corps and lived in Belize for two years. At 81, she went on an archaeological dig to Guatemala. She also traveled to China and the Galapagos Islands. She volunteered throughout her life, delivering food for Meals on Wheels in Weymouth for 17 years and visiting the Veterans Administration Hospital in Bedford every month, baking cakes and throwing parties for people with Alzheimer's disease. She also volunteered as a counselor at the Hole in the Wall Gang, a camp in Connecticut for children with serious illnesses.

Obituary for Belize RPCV Evelyn Norton

Evelyn Norton, Marine Corps, Peace Corps veteran, kept vigil at St. Albert

Aug 2, 2006

Patriot Ledger Quincy, Ma

WEYMOUTH - When Evelyn M. (Johnson) Norton joined the Marine Corps in 1944, she stood on her tiptoes to make the 5-foot height requirement.

One of the first women Marines, she served in El Toro, Calif., until 1946.

Mrs. Norton, 85, of Weymouth, died Tuesday at home.

She met her husband, William H. Norton, in the Marine Corps, and after the war they moved to his hometown of Dorchester to begin their family. An electrician, Mr. Norton was killed on the job in 1959, leaving her to raise their four children, aged 5 to 10.

"I don't ever recall a time in my life when my mother didn't tell us how blessed we were because we were healthy and she had a good job," said her daughter, Virginia Donnelly of East Dennis.

She recalled her mother taking the family for Sunday drives on Route 2. Even when she was tired from working, she always took her children to dances, to the beach or wherever they had to go.

"She was always positive and upbeat," her daughter said.

Mrs. Norton worked for the Postal Service for 30 years and became a supervisor in the inspection department. Before that, she was a bank teller in Boston.

At 65, she joined the Peace Corps and lived in Belize for two years. At 81, she went on an archaeological dig to Guatemala. She also traveled to China and the Galapagos Islands.

She volunteered throughout her life, delivering food for Meals on Wheels in Weymouth for 17 years and visiting the Veterans Administration Hospital in Bedford every month, baking cakes and throwing parties for people with Alzheimer's disease. She also volunteered as a counselor at the Hole in the Wall Gang, a camp in Connecticut for children with serious illnesses.

A communicant of St. Albert the Great Church in Weymouth, Mrs. Norton knit in the pews as part of the round-the-clock, ultimately successful vigil to keep the church open after the Archdiocese of Boston closed it.

"She was a woman who lived what seemed like a simple and quiet life

Mrs. Norton enjoyed line dancing. She took classes at the University of Massachusetts until she was 81.

Born in Munich, N.D., she was raised in Minnesota, where she attended business school.

Mrs. Donnelly, she is survived by another daughter, Kathleen M. Thorsen of Wisconsin; two sons, Michael J. Norton of East Dennis and William Francis Norton of Virginia; a sister, Hazel Stensrude of Minnesota; 12 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Albert the Great Church, 1130 Washington St., Weymouth. Burial will be in Mount Benedict Cemetery, Boston.

Arrangements were made by McDonald Funeral Home, Weymouth.

When this story was posted in October 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:




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