Gladys Norton

Gladys Norton was born March 16, 1928 in Sheldon, Iowa, the daughter of Mary (Smith) and Frank Eich. She spent her young life on a farm in Matlock, Iowa receiving her elementary education at Dale Number 8 and graduating from high school in 1946 in Sioux City, Iowa. On January 3, 1948, she was married to Ervin Norton in Dakota City, Nebraska. Ervin was a truck driver and so she joined him on the road and traveled the United States and Canada. Ervin and Gladys were blessed with three children, Donna, Michael and Patti. In 1951, they moved to California and returned to Milford in 1972. After Ervin's death in 1997, Gladys took up the computer, spending hours entertaining cancer kids on the internet making this the hardest job she had ever done…crying when they cried and finding it very hard to find words to make them smile. She traveled to different cities, giving talks about her work with them. She painted scenery pictures on walking canes selling them around the world. Gladys also had the talent to write poetry which she had won two large trophies and many of her poems published. Gladys passed away Monday, May 24, 2010 at Hilltop Care Center in Spirit Lake, Iowa at eighty-two years of age. She is survived by her children, Donna Asher (Denny) of Spirit Lake; Michael Norton (Rikki) of Milford, Iowa and Patti Norton of Milford; four grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren; brothers, Eichy and Jack Eich; and a very special friend, Edward Morse.