Norma Haddad Eagleton

1934 - 2025

Norma Haddad Eagleton

Mar 19, 1934 - Aug 13, 2025

A magnificent woman left us peacefully on August 13, 2025. Her body may have worn out, but her marvelous mind was with us until the end.

As this short description of Norma Haddad Eagleton's 91 years of life was being prepared, the word of her passing spread. The groundswell of remembrances gives testament that we now have lost the guidance and companionship of a tremendously driven and accomplished public servant.

Norma achieved degrees from Stephens College in Missouri, The University of Oklahoma, and Oklahoma City University College of Law. She spent a lifetime of firsts, most notably in elected office. Norma became the first female Commissioner (Finance Commissioner) on the Tulsa City Commission in 1976, and then, in 1979 the first woman to serve on the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.

Norma has been inducted into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame, the Claremore Hall of Fame, and the Claremore Public Schools Hall of Fame.

Throughout her long life, she had many roles and titles:

- Daughter, sister, wife, and mother. "Nonie" to her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Matriarch. And in his final years, protector of her wonderful husband of 61 years, Edward John Eagleton.

- And more publicly, she was valedictorian, volunteer, protester and when useful agitator. Commissioner, chairwoman, college regent, attorney, child advocate, and conflict mediator.

- And finally, role model and wise counsel to so many who now carry on for her, in the struggles of our time.

Like countless women of her era, she was not reared to hold public office, prepared instead to be supportive wife and mother, as her mother had been. But her remarkable parents, Sam and Edwina Haddad, instilled in Norma Lee the drive for achievement in all she did. They insisted she be a serious person, a person of substance. She took it from there.

In her young adulthood, times were changing. As a young mother, Norma was witness to upheaval in America, brought on by demands for civil rights, protests over the Vietnam War, the assassinations of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Bobby Kennedy, the burgeoning environmental movement, Watergate, America's energy crisis and runaway inflation, and the growing and vocal insistence by woman for their equality and autonomy and opportunity. Norma found herself increasingly engaged in these struggles. After years of trying to make a difference from the outside, her commitment to public service and courage to enter the fray suited her do something mostly unheard of for women--to enter politics. She ran and won four city and state level campaigns for public office, on the shoulders of an army of motivated women. Much was foretold when after her very first election to become Tulsa's Finance Commissioner, she arrived at City Hall and was escorted to her new office on the Commissioners' floor. She noticed the bathrooms were designated "Executives" and "Ladies." By the end of that day, the brass plates read "Gentlemen" and "Ladies." Norma Eagleton would be a force.

When confronted with hard problems, Norma was eager to get to the meat of the matter. Her notion of problem solving was to start by asking constituents to tell her of the difficulties in their lives. Having heard from them, she collaborated with others to identify real solutions, after which she would use her position and dogged determination to bring about change, no matter how difficult. These were the skills she took to her second act, after achieving her law degree at night at age 54. She became tireless advocate for women and children and agent for systemic change in the Family Courts of Tulsa County.

Norma did make a difference. When at the City of Tulsa, the new lady Commissioner believed that a great city such as ours could create a modern ambulance service, imagining we could improve upon the existing model, where funeral homes sent out station wagons to collect bodies for transport. If they happened to be alive when arriving at the hospital, they received care. She assembled a team of experts, immersed herself in the possibilities, and oversaw a complete redesign and implementation of a new concept, where little mobile hospitals rush out with medical professionals to stabilize the injured and then get them back alive to the hospitals for treatment. The Emergency Medical Services Authority, or EMSA, was born, and remains in service half a century later. This inventive model has been copied all across America. One cannot count the lives saved in Oklahoma and beyond because of Norma Haddad Eagleton. "The Mother of EMSA" was the name of which she was most proud.

In reflecting upon her life, Norma mentioned how honored and humbled she felt in hearing from countless young women that they had been inspired into study and service by her example and encouragement. When asked recently, she confided that if anyone were to remember her, she hoped they would think she had been a woman of integrity who always bargained in good faith. May it be so.

Morning has broken.

Predeceased her in death were Norma's parents, Sam N. and Edwina Beatty Haddad; and husband, E. John Eagleton. She is survived by her brother, Richard Haddad of Lancaster, Pennsylvania; her children Courtney Eagleton of Carbondale, Colorado, and Rick and Jennifer Eagleton of Tulsa; her five grandchildren Jane, Lily, Sam, Maggie and Rachael; great-grandchildren; and countless cousins, nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made to Domestic Violence Intervention Services of Tulsa and Family & Children's Services of Tulsa. Services pending.