Norma E.H. Bridwell

Norma Ellen Howard Bridwell, 92, passed away in tranquility on Saturday, October 25, 2025, surrounded by family in her Edgartown home. Norma was born in Davenport, Iowa on Friday, January 13, 1933. She was adopted by John and Gladys Howard of New Bethel, Indiana, where she was raised on her parents' modest farm. During the Korean War Norma served stateside as a corporal in the US Army, becoming an x-ray technician at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. After several years working in a Chicago hospital, she decided to take advantage of the GI bill, which paid her way through art school in New York City.

Working there as a graphic artist, an art director introduced Norma to a fellow freelancer, also from the state of Indiana and sharing a similar first name: Norman Bridwell. Much to the dismay of certain relatives back home, the two married on Norma's lucky day, Friday the 13th of June,1958. They worked for the next few years as a team in the precarious field of freelance commercial art, where the next job was never certain. Following the birth of their daughter Emily Elizabeth in 1961, Norma became a full-time mother, while Norman tried his hand at publishing a first children's book. Norma suggested he name the larger-than-life character Clifford, after an imaginary friend from her childhood.

Their son Tim was born in 1964. Inspired by a honeymoon visit, they decided to move to Martha's Vineyard permanently in 1969. Here Norma found her muse in the island's natural beauty and began painting once again. She discovered warm and generous people, with neighbors on one side bringing bubbling pots of Caldo Verde soup, and those on the other coming across the lawn holding fresh bluefish by the gills. This was community. Norma jumped right in, at the Federated Church of Edgartown, the Women's Club and Mothers' Club (serving as president of both), and as a lifetime member of the island NAACP. She was instrumental in major projects for the Edgartown Boys and Girls Club and Nathan Mayhew Seminars in Vineyard Haven.

On weekly trips to their apartment in Boston, Norman and Norma reconnected to the arts they so loved in their early years, becoming patrons of the Boston Ballet and Museum of Fine Arts, where Norma entered a studio art class she would continue for 26 years. In 2019 and 2022 Norma's creative gift was acknowledged by the community, with her first solo art shows on the island.

Norma was strength, compassion and generosity. She was there for all of us.

Norma is survived by her daughter Emily Bridwell Merz of Edgartown, her son Tim Bridwell and daughter-in-law Tsuyu Bridwell of Paris, grandchildren Alissa B. Merz of West Hollywood, Tatsuo Bridwell and Koto Bridwell of Paris, and nephew Bill Bridwell and his wife Betsy Young Buck of Oak Bluffs. She is predeceased by her husband Norman R. Bridwell. A private service was held by Norma's family. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to MV Community Services.