Norma Leuthold

Norma Manning Leuthold, adoring wife, companion and mother, our doting kin and faultless friend passed gently, gazing on Little Pottsburgh Creek, Saturday, July 8, 2023. Norma Elizabeth was born to Violet and J.T. Manning in River Junction, Florida in 1926. Norma writes, “J.T. worked as a railway mail clerk, ‘putting up the mail’ in slots and throwing bags off at each town from Jacksonville to Pensacola. When Violet’s labor pains started, she stood in the doorway and waved goodbye to J.T., turned and sent for the doctor. What a brave girl she was at 20.” J.T.’s folks were farmers, and in spring he had to quit school to “follow the mules”. But he preferred education, earned a teaching license and taught Violet’s siblings at the schoolhouse in Baghdad, home to the Rollo family, down the Blackwater River from the panhandle town of Milton.

Violet’s family, the Rollos were drawn to the Bay, settled on Pelican Bayou, and worked as boat captains, seafaring mailmen and fishermen. Norma describes her grandfather, Papa Dave Rollo with “big brown eyes, and brown, curly hair, like Manuel in Captains Courageous”. When the Huey Long Bridge was built over the Mississippi in the 30s, Dave and sons Lawrence and King David piloted the boats to carry supplies to the workers. The Rollos were fun-loving and musical and Norma’s grandmother Phariba played piano, guitar, fiddle and mouth harp. “J.T. never really approved of the Rollos, so on trips home, we stayed at the Manning’s Allentown farm. Gramma always came out of the house wiping her mouth on her apron to remove the snuff.” Norma swung on the gate with cousins James, Charles, Newton, Thames and Melvin, as her grandmother Carrie Stanton called in the cows, “Co-ank, Bessie, co-ank.” The Mannings were “hard-working farm people, strong, secure and substantial – honest and true”.

J.T. taught all his children to read and write before they were five, and imparted a passion for school. When little Norma was two, Violet & J.T. built a house on Belmont Terrace in South Jacksonville, across from Southside Grammar School, and Norma would sit on the porch and watch the students come and go, anxious to begin, and when she did - thanks to the tutoring of J.T. and Betty Lee Bouchelle – skipped a grade right off the bat. She met her best friend, Alice Heston in Brownies in 1934 and Norma, brother Joe, sister Dotty and their folks moved into a new house next to the Hestons on her tenth birthday. Alice and Norma played jacks and collected stamps, and later boyfriends while attending Landon High School, where our hero joined every club, led the Lionettes and she and her pal Bill Anderson were recognized for their spirited personalities and crowned in the Christmas court. Norma and Alice earned partial scholarships to Wesleyan, “a proper girls' finishing school" in Macon, where after a year they realized that all the fellas were at Auburn.

As WWII spread across the globe, Norma and Alice took a year off from Auburn and worked in government offices back in Jacksonville. In June of 1945, an old friend, B.J. Kellow invited her friends and naval officers from NAS to a Business Women's formal dance, where Norma met Lt. Bob Wurst and Ensign Duane Leuthold. Bob called the next day and they went for a date. Duane waited a cool three days, showed up at the house in his Navy whites and Violet confessed, “That's the best looking man who's ever walked in this house.” Duane was stationed at Whidbey Island, preparing for duty in the Pacific as the war ended. He returned home to Oshkosh, and Duane & Norma corresponded every two or three days. Duane visited in the summer of ’47, proposed marriage and J.T. warned Norma, “If you move to Wisconsin, you'll be like one of my fruit trees, and wither and die.” Norma’s brother Joe loved cars and offered to return to Oshkosh with Duane and help him drive. Norma had yet to meet the Leutholds, so she grilled

Joe for any valuable intelligence upon his return. Concerning Duane's mother Gladys, Joe beamed, “She wears green eyeshadow, sits at the card table and says, ‘Deal!’”

Norma and Duane were married at South Jacksonville Presbyterian Church on a June 11, 1948. Duane lost the ring, Norma was still sewing her dress as she walked down the aisle, and Joe and Vance spiked the punch once Reverend Harvin left the reception. The pair received china, silver and two toasters as wedding presents. So they called from Daytona Beach to ask Violet to sell one of the toasters and extend their honeymoon at the $7-per-night Sea Spray Motel. Norma agreed to move to Oshkosh while Duane finished his architecture apprenticeship at Ted Irion's office. The newlyweds spent every Sunday with Duane’s mother Gladys, father Alfred, and eight of Duane's ten siblings on 18th Street. As if they knew, the nuns at Mercy Hospital told Norma that she was “doing it all wrong" as she delivered her first child, Duane Jr. In June of ’50. The floor of the garage apartment was so cold that little Dee couldn't learn to crawl until the spring thaw of 1951. Norma rented a sewing machine and made clothes and a Raggedy Ann and Andy for Dee. She would continue sewing kids’ outfits, costumes, dresses, curtains and slipcovers into her eighties. She was finishing a floral needlepoint pillow when she left us. Back in Oshkosh, Norma became fast friends with her father-in-law. Gladys ruled the roost, and her nephew called her “the General", to Alfred’s “private”. Norma remembers, “One Sunday during dinner, Mom was reading the riot act to Dad – really blessing him out. He never responded, just took it. Then the phone rang and Mom went to answer. I looked at Dad and said, ‘Saved by the bell!’ I think he loved me after that and I certainly loved him. He was a wonderful, kind and patient man.”

Duane Sr. kept his promise to Norma, and the new family moved back to Jacksonville, built a house in Clifton in 1952, and brought three more boys into the world. Duane Jr enjoyed staying at Grammy & Pappa's while Norma worked, and he cried when his folks came after him. While expecting David, Norma entered figures all day on an adding machine at the IRS and believed that this was why David became a math whiz and programmer. Dee was the tournament champ at his buddy Kenny Cromartie's Putt-Putt on Arlington Expressway, David had several motorcycles and just as many wrecks, and Bill developed good people skills and followed his dad into the architecture business. When they brought Scott home in 1963, Bill asked his folks, “Can we take him back to the hospital? “Bill made sure that Scott was gainfully employed throughout his adult life. As Scott prepared for college in 1986, Duane and Norma purchased a lot on the creek for pennies from Violet and built their forever home.

Norma was driven to embrace family, meet people and bring them together to foster friendships for life and beyond. Fourth cousins and friends of friends were welcomed in for a meal and a room. Duane would sometimes protest but understood the weight of these connections. Norma worked as school secretary at Arlington Elementary, joined garden clubs and circle meetings and she and Duane enjoyed dinner parties and traveling with neighborhood couples. Norma took interest in Duane’s ancestry and followed his tree to Oberrieden, Switzerland, where they met Cousin Heini Keller and his wife Marianne, with whom they enjoyed over forty years of an epic transatlantic companionship. They shared their families and visited a dozen times on both shores.

Norma Leuthold was collector and an archivist. Beginning in the '70s, she’d have Duane pull over at every antique shop or barn full of “treasure”. They frequented art festivals and toured the country with their boys. Norma loaded the trunk of the Buick LeSabre with colorful, round

rocks from a beach in Nova Scotia. She fell in love and would fly home with bentwood furniture, particularly those made by Thonet and J. & J. Kohn at the end of the nineteenth century. Norma and Duane learned to strip, repair and stain every piece, and she caned the seats and backs of dozens of chairs, settees and rockers. She accumulated over 150 pieces of this particular form of Art Nouveau.

Norma is survived by her sister Dotty, brother Gene, her four boys, Duane, David, Bill and Scott, daughters- in-law, Liz, Sarah and Lisa, six grandchildren, Riley (Jessica), Sam (Sara), Alex (Samantha), Kylie (Kevin), Violet and Betty, and cousins, nieces, nephews, in-laws and friends, all of whom knew and loved this exceptional soul. In 2002, as Norma and Duane were preparing to leave for a high school reunion in Wisconsin, Norma left this entry, “Just wanted to say it's been great so far - I've been so lucky (or blessed, as Helen Golden would say) – the best parents anyone could have – a special sister and two special brothers, great grammar and high school friends still with me, finding a wonderful husband who remains interested in traveling the scenic roads, and the four most amazing sons who have brought us immense pleasure, the sweet daughters-in-law and the grandsons and at last, a granddaughter! Who could ask for more! It's a Wonderful Life!”

Crevasse's Simple Cremation is honored to serve the Leuthold family.