Norma Jean Deloris Perkins-Bailey

On December 11, 2024, at Mercy Hospital, Springfield, Missouri, Norma Jean Deloris (Dadey) Perkins-Bailey passed away. A graveside service will be held in May 2025 at Westlawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Grand Island, NE. 

Born May 13, 1934, to Harold E. Dadey and Johanna Katherine Larsen at Hampton, Hamilton County Nebraska, she was the eldest of four children. In June 1934 she was baptized at St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Hampton, Nebraska. Norma was nearly a lifelong Nebraska resident, much of her life spent in Grand Island, about 8 years in North Platte.  

On September 7, 1952, at Grand Island, she married first Harry G. Perkins (1930-2019) and by him had three children. Years after their divorce she married on November 14, 1997 at Grand Island William S. Bailey (1937-2011).

Norma was for many years employed at the Nebraska Veterans Home in Grand Island. After retirement, her passions were singing, ballroom dancing with husband Bill, and Toastmasters International, the latter her source for self-confidence, esteem building, and meeting friends. She also enjoyed Saturday morning breakfast with friends at The Palace Restaurant. Even within weeks of her passing she expressed a desire to go back and have another breakfast with friends, one of the few joys she remembered well. Given her age of 90, most of her Phillips High School classmates of 1951 have passed as well.

Surviving in birth order are Diane M. Colson of Omaha, Calvin H. Perkins of Oklahoma City, and Steven Perkins, Springfield Missouri. She leaves grandchildren and step-grandchildren, as well as great and great-great grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews, and her sister Marilyn Lahowetz of Grand Island.