Dodie was born in Anacortes, WA to Valentino and Maria Premo who immigrated to the U.S. from Northeast Italy before World War I. She attended the University of Washington in the late thirties, the first in her family to do so, graduating with a degree in Home Economics. Her teaching career spanned nearly forty years beginning with early assignments in Quilcene and Lake Chelan.
After a long courtship, she married Byron (By) Norman in Anacortes on Christmas Eve, 1941, just seventeen days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Not wanting to sit at home during the war, Dodie enlisted in the new Women's Army Corps (WACs) as a hospital dietician serving returning wounded stateside, rising to the rank of Captain.
After the war, Dodie returned to teaching and was on the faculty of Edmonds Junior High as well as pioneering Boys' Home Ec and Family Living classes during her years at Meadowdale and Lynnwood High Schools.
Dodie was not only a career teacher, but a loving wife, homemaker, mother and hostess. She was famous for stylish entertaining and her recipes were legend among friends and family.
Never idle in retirement, Dodie learned Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging, and, at age 79, traveled to Japan to receive her “Board” (degree) from a master of the Ohara School. Not shy at the mic, and sporting a self-deprecating sense of humor, she was repeatedly selected as mistress of ceremonies for the annual luncheon of the local Ohara chapter. Dodie was an avid stamper who never forgot an occasion and lucky friends and family had the pleasure of receiving her beautifully crafted greeting cards celebrating their special days over the years.
She is survived by her two children: Barbara Norman Burn (Jim) and Thomas Norman (Madeline).
Dolores Iole Norman will be laid to rest next to her husband at Holyrood Cemetery in Shoreline. In lieu of flowers, the family encourages a donation in her name to the ALS Association, www.als.org
Anne Mackie
I loved Mrs. Norman even if she did make us kneel on the floor to be sure our skirts touched the ground. First an apron, then a skirt, then a dress - those were the Home Ec projects we made under her watchful eye. I've loved sewing ever since, even if my mother did have to stay up to midnight helping me finish that dress! Mrs. Norman also was our song / cheer squad faculty advisor, and we were lucky enough to be entertained in her lovely home on Olympic View Dr. where we practiced our best table manners. I didn't know she was a "Captain" in the WACs until reading her obituary today. Great woman! Great teacher. Lots of fun memories.
George Reid
I had Mrs. Norman for both Boys Home EC and Family Living. I'll never forget my telling her that i would never get married and her looking back at me, smiling, and saying "George, you will eat those words one day". Great teacher and wonderful lady.
Charlette Will (Saccone)
I too, remember Mrs. Norman and our Home Ec class!!! I was already into sewing by the time I took her class because my Grandmother was a seamstress. Mrs. Norman was an enthusiastic teacher...loving everything pertaining to "the Home"! She influenced me in that area and being a homemaker, seamstress, and cook, and being a lover of hospitality, has been in part due to Mrs. Norman's teaching and inspiration. I hope I can live to enjoy my family to the beautiful ripe age of 99!!! Amazing! Blessings to her family as I know she will be greatly missed....Charlette
John Mills
Mrs. Norman was indeed a treasure, apparently both in her personal life as well as her professional career as an educator. I am so moved by reading her life story and I am sure she brought joy to everyone whose life she touched.
My sister, Janis Hansen of Edmonds High (1962), and I have always talked about the value of a class such as Mrs. Norman's "family living." I went from my algebra class where things were so abstract to Mrs. Norman's instruction where I learned how to manage a checkbook and balance a monthly budget. Her curriculum was that of teaching the nitty gritty of practical everyday skills one needed to know to be independent.
She had an extremely positive and engagingly humorous style of approaching the challenges of our lives ahead. The was sensitive to our individual needs, as I so vividly recall. She asked me to monitor the projector during a film that showed the consequences of driver who was inattentive behind the wheel. Mrs. Norman noticed when during the film I kind of stumbled to the back of the room and went outside. She discretely kept her eye on the class as she checked on me. I had almost fainted and was sitting on the floor of the hallway. She guarded my secret so no classmate ever knew that a macho guy like me was ever faint-hearted. (OK...part of that story is exaggerated.) LOL!!!
My thanks and gratitude to this wondrous teacher at M.H.S.
Judy Klebaum (Elston)
Mrs. Norman was a gracious lady who made a difference in my life by not only teaching me the basics of sewing in her Home Ec class, but also as a wonderful and caring advisor to the song/cheer squad. It appears that she lived her life well and was very influential in the lives of her students. I loved her and offer my heartfelt condolences to her children for the loss of a very special Mom!
Judy
Anita Kain (Sokmen)
I was fortunate to know “Mrs. Norman” as my instructor at Meadowdale HS; as “Dodie”, a colleague at Lynnwood HS; and as a friend of my mother’s as they worked together in the Edmonds School District. She was gracious, meticulous, and very talented. She helped me make a full-length, herringbone coat in Tailoring class, when sewing definitely wasn’t one of my strong points. What patience she had! I wish I could have seen some of her Ikebana. At least I can imagine her joy in becoming masterful in that art form. Warm thoughts go out to her family.
George McLouth
I remember enrolling in both Boys Home Ec and Family Living for less than altruistic motives. I found however that Mrs. Norman possessed a subtle graciousness even I understood to be genuine. I have often thought of her and the gifts she bestowed which I wouldn’t realize or appreciate until later. At MHS I confessed my social ineptitude to Mrs. Norman as my first legitimate “dinner date” approached! She took the time to rehearse me in the fundamentals of conducting myself as a gentleman. When I was later stationed in Washington, DC in the early eighties I often said a quiet “Thank you Mrs. Norman” when attending embassy functions and so forth. I will not forget her.
Paul Tomlin
I took boys home ec thinking easy class easy credit. Yeah...not so easy. She was a very kind sweet lady and a great teacher. I still bake the pizza recipe she taught in class.