Norma Jean Compton Ekey

Norma Jean (Lee) Compton Ekey went to Heaven on November 11, 2025. A memorial service is scheduled for November 29, Saturday, at 1 PM , at Lakeview Church of God , 1408 North Victoria Avenue, in Iowa Park, Texas. The family is inviting all who attend the service to a special luncheon and fellowship At 12 noon, prior to the service. Memorials are suggested for Lakeview Church of God.
Being the first daughter and second child born to Gracie and Clayborn Lee, August 17, 1933, in Muldrow Oklahoma , Norma Jean Lee was strong willed from the very beginning. She and her two earliest siblings, older brother Floyd, and younger sister Betty, lived in a home with their mom and dad that had a dirt floor. Looking for work , the five of them then moved to Deming, New Mexico , and their house there was made of sod, grass, rocks, and mud, near an Indian reservation . Most of the residents there were of Mexican descent, so their Dad, Cherokee Indian, had expected some residents might be unhappy with them, but they were warmly welcomed. However, they soon returned to Oklahoma, close to relatives.

Their tiny house in Oklahoma , a small Indian community called Watts, had no running water, no electricity, and a coal fired stove in the home for heat, and wood burning stove in the kitchen . The house had three small rooms for nine children and their parents . The water well was located about
a fourth of a mile down the hill, so each day all the children carried water.

Baths were scheduled one day a week in two big tubs that were first used for rinsing and blueing clothes, after being washed on the rub board.

All the children walked to school two miles away, barefoot in summer, and one pair of shoes for winter and Church. They lived on fruits from fruit trees, vegetables from the garden, chickens they raised , a hog that a family member gave them each year, and a milk cow.

Their first exposure to the country church saw their parents making pallets on the floor for the younger kids as the services were usually long. .
As they grew older Norma, Floyd and Betty missed quite a bit of school as they traveled with their dad to Arkansas to pick cotton to help the big growing family . They finally left school before entering high school.

If there was one word to describe Norma, it was fearless or brave, whatever she faced in life. When she was barely 16, while visiting her Aunt Dee & Uncle Garvin in Iowa Park , she decided she wasn't going home to Oklahoma and wanted to apply for a job as a nurse's aide at General Hospital. So she and her sweet cousin Glenna, almost 16, decided she would too. They were accepted and both loved that cousin Roy, Glenna's brother, took them to and from work. They were so proud of how good they looked in their all white uniforms, and they both loved their job.

After a year, Norma, now 17, returned back to Watts, OK, and decided she wanted to work in a big department store in Muskogee, OK. So she, her sister Betty 16, , and cousin Inez16, , wanted to go also. They knew no one there but Norma took them to apply at stores. The three of them rented a tiny apartment , had no car, but Norma would walk the girls to their jobs, then she went to hers. On the first day, she met the girls' boss and told him that she expected these young girls to be treated fairly, and she would b checking on them.

In 1950, their brother Floyd married his sweetheart and they moved to Rockford, Illinois where many other cousins were working at factories , since World War II.

At same time, Norma married a local handsome cowboy, Clifford, but he had enlisted in the army and was sent to Greenland. Norma " gathered up " Betty and they headed to Rockford to work.

In 1952, our dad left Watts looking for work also in Illinois, , so Norma and Betty left Rockford and went home to help their mother with the other children. Our mother got a piece of coal in her eye, so Norma walked with her mom 10 miles to a doctor in Sallisaw, as they had no car. They finally got a ride with a neighbor near their destination, and the Dr fixed her eye.

Norma and Betty then hired someone with a pickup to move what little furniture our Mom could pack in it ,as well as another pickup to transport our mom & six kids from Oklahoma to Iowa Park , near her brother.

Norma and Betty rented our first home in Iowa Park ….a two room house for Mom and us six kids that had running water, electricity , and an outhouse, from a sweet and kind lady- Mrs Garner. We were so happy!!!! She also had a milk cow she gave us, so we had milk and butter, which we sold.

Norma's husband, Cliff, returned from army duty in Greenland, and they settled in Wichita, Kansas. They had two wonderful children, Calvin and Beverly.

Norma loved everything Elvis and she got to go to Graceland after Elvis death . She even walked up to the main gate and asked to meet Elvis' Uncle Vestus. She also loved country music and met Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty. Her peanut brittle was a blessing to us all.

Norma suffered her first big heartbreak… her husband Clifford passed away in 1996. To help her grieve, Norma began crocheting beautiful dolls, quilts and pillows to give away. Also, she began writing pen pals for many years encouraging them.

In 2003, one of her pen pals introduced Norma to her twin brother and widower John Ekey, retired Lt Colonel. He asked for Norma's hand in marriage on Feb 14, 2004, but she initially said no, as that very day she was diagnosed with breast cancer. He persisted and after her surgery, they were married in July. Her two kids loved John.

Norma's beautiful daughter, Beverly, developed an incurable disease . Norma and John, and especially Calvin, her brother, took such good care of Beverly after he got off work at the hospital, where he worked for 47 years……it took her life in 2019, Norma's second great heartbreak. Then in 2020, her third heartbreak, John, at age 92, died from Covid.

Undefeated, Norma bounced back from all these tragedies, and she and son Calvin moved to Iowa Park in 2021 to be closer to family.

Norma had many health issues, including broken hip, yet her son Calvin was relentless in caring for her every need 24/7. He made sure her life was so full from 2020 until her last breath. No son could have done it better!!! He preserved her life, time and again and took her on many trips, reunions, vacations. What a wonderful son!!!!!!

With all she had endured in 92 years, the loss of her daughter and two husbands, and her health issues, she was a fighter, and so strong to the very end of her life.

As I sat by her side the evening she went to heaven, even tho she was semi conscious, I reminded her all evening of all the many victories she had won,all the obstacles she had overcome with God's help, just by refusing to give up, by being strong and an overcomer.

I think this part of the Proverbs 31 woman best describes my sister Norma: " STRENGTH and honor are her clothing. She looks well to the needs of her big household; her children rise up and call her blessed, and her husband too, and he praises her."proverbs31:25-28.

She is preceded in death by her parents; daughter Beverly;husbands Clifford & John; brother Floyd; sisters Betty, Pat, Jaynell, Gaylene;
Brothers in law Charles, Bobby, Jerry; Sisters in law Margie, Pat.

She is survived by her son Calvin; brothers Jerry& wife Jana , Jim & wife Andrea, Mike & wife Joyce, Tim& wife Vondal, Dennis & wife Aaron;sisters Dorthy, Margie & husband Mike, Denise.