General Notes

Obituary:  28 Sep 1909, Kansas City Star, Kansas City, Missouri:

    Joseph L. Norman is Dead
    The end to the School Board Secretary last night

    For twenty-one years he had served Kansas City as a Member of the Board of Education. Ill for ten weeks.

    Joseph L. Norman secretary of the Board of Education, died of heart disease at 10 o'clock last night at his home, 816 West Thirty-ninth Street. Mr. Norman had been a member of the Board of Education for twenty-one years prior to last November, when he resigned to become secretary to fill the vacancy caused by the death of W. E. Benson. From 1901 to the time he resigned he was president of the board. His death last week followed an illness of ten weeks.

    Joseph Lafayette Norman was born in Jefferson County, Illinois, October 21, 1841. He came of a family of soldiers who served in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.  His father was Jones Norman who served in Company A, Twelfth Kansas Infantry, the same company he was a member of.  Joseph Norman, his great-grandfather, whose name was also Joseph Norman, was a member of a North Carolina regiment in the Infantry from Wyandotte County, August 15, 1862.  He was in the Price and Shelby raids in Missouri and in the battles of Little Blue, Westport, Mine Creek and Pleasanton, all of which were fought in the vicinity of Kansas City.  After the war he continued his military connections as the first quartermaster and ranking captain of the Third Regiment of Kansas City.

    The firm of Norman and Robertson, abstracters, of which Mr . Norman was the senior member, was dissolved last June and his interest purchased by Frank Hagerman.  For many years the firm name was Traber and Norman, the senior partner being Lafayette Traber, who lives at 1731 Pendleton Avenue.  It was said last night that at the time Mr. Norman opened his first abstract books in Kansas City his income from them for two months was $65.

    Mr. Norman married Martha Jane Puckett at Westport, January 17, 1865.  Mrs. Norman died January 3, 1901.  There were f ive children by this marriage:  Traber Norman, a captain in the Eighth United States Infantry, who is now stationed at Monterey, Cal.; Frank Norman, a real estate dealer in this city; Joseph L. Norman, Jr., a civil engineer in Mexico, and Miss Jane Norman.  His second marriage was to Miss Katherine Gent in 1903.  They have a son, Howard Norman, 5 years old.

    It was as a member of the board of education that Mr. Norman served Kansas City most actively. He became a member when the school system was small and unsettled and it was due to his work and planning that it grew in size and importance as a factor in the development of the city. The ward school at Thirty-sixth and Summit streets was named for him. Mr. Norman took little interest in other civic subjects than the schools and refused to accept any other office. He was a member of the Masons and the Farragut-Thomas Post, G. A. R.

    When Mr. Norman left his office in the Public Library Building ten weeks ago he told his associates there that he was not feeling well, but hoped to be able to continue his work.  But once since he was able to visit friends downtown.  Yesterday his condition was said to be improved, but he became worse about 9 o'clock.  His wife, daughter and son, Frank Norman, were with him at the end.

    Several days ago, when Mr. Norman was improved, he planned to remove to the new home he had purchased at the southwest corner of Thirty-fifth and Jefferson Streets.  Sunday the announcement of the approaching marriage of his daughter to Edward Dunton Davenport of Portland, Ore., was made.

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