Norma Brown was born August 19, 1919 in Fredonia, Coconino County, Arizona. She was the youngest of 4 living children of Rex Brown and Arletta Esplin. When Norma was 10, Rex bought a fruit farm in Springville Canyon. The year was 1929 and what seemed like a good investment, became a disaster.
After a few years they had to foreclose the farm. They moved to Spanish Fork until they found a farm to rent then buy it. Norma graduated from Spanish Fork high school and attended 1 year at Utah State College on a scholarship. She came home and did housekeeping for a dentist in Provo. After a year she had enough money to enter Nursing School at Salt Lake General Hospital. She took class during the day and worked in the hospital at night. It was hands on training.
She went to work in Cedar City after graduation. There she saw an advertisement for nursing in a civilian hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii. This was during WWII. During this same time Maurice Keith Williams was stationed in Hawaii in the Navy. When the war was over they both ended up in San Francisco, California. She was a nurse and lived with her sister, Vera, in a boarding house. Maurice was a hairdresser and would come to the boardinghouse on Saturday nights to dances. Before the dance he would do the women’s hair. He convinced Norma to cut her very long hair short which was the style. After a few months they became engaged.
They found a Mormon Bishop to marry them on February 8, 1947.They had a short honeymoon in Carmel, California. They lived in San Francisco until after George Stanley was born on November 25, 1947. They moved to San Mateo into a small house. Maurice commuted to San Francisco on the train. Yvonne was born February 23, 1949. Three years later they moved to Menlo Park where Maurice opened his own beauty salon. On December 8, 1958 Carol Ann was born. In May, the year Carol was born, Maurice finally was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. On July 14, 1962, the family was sealed in the Manti, Utah Temple. On Maurice’s 65th birthday he retired and they moved to Silver City, New Mexico on January 1, 1979 where their daughter Yvonne was living.
In the fall of 1981 they took their 5th wheel trailer on the trip of a lifetime. They first visited Nauvoo, Illinois then went to Palmyra, New York and saw the Sacred Grove. Then they went to Vermont where they spent 2 weeks visiting Maurice’s relatives and getting family history information. Their trip home took them through Washington D.C., Orlando, Florida, New Orleans, and the Alamo.
Much of their time in Silver City was spent serving in the church. Norma’s first calling was as Relief Society President. Later she served as secretary for the Stake Primary. She often substituted as a Relief Society teacher. She and Maurice served as home and visiting teachers to several inactive couples.
Every year they raised a large garden and Norma spent most of the summer freezing and canning the products from the garden and fruit trees. In the fall when the garden was done, they would take many bottles from the garden to their children. First they would go to Yvonne in Montana, next Stan in Washington, Carol in Idaho and ending up in Utah at Norma’s sisters. They would not get home until November.
In July 2003 they moved to a small double wide mobile home near Stan in Spanish Fork. About Fathers Day 2004 Maurice had a severe stroke that made swallowing very difficult. He was put in a nursing home near the hospital. Norma would visit him every day and try to help him eat. He went downhill quickly and passed away July 26, 2004.
Norma lived alone for awhile, but Stan and Terri watched over her. The Alzheimer’s disease was starting to be more apparent. In September 2006 she moved to Naturita, Colorado where she had her own bedroom and bathroom in Yvonne’s new home there. She lived with them for 10 years. In 2016 she went to Twin Falls where Carol lives. Carol found a good nursing home for her. She was in pretty good health until December 2018 when her health declined. Each Sunday Carol would pick her up and take her to church. On Fast Sunday in November she bore a sweet testimony in Church.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Maurice Williams, a grandson, Lance Mortensen, and a great-granddaughter Kayla Tomlinson and two infants, Joshua Biggers and Daniel Greenburg. She is survived by her children, Stanley (Terri) Williams of Spanish Fork, Utah, Yvonne (Micheal) Mortensen of Naturita, Colorado and Carol Ann (Kelley) Biggers of Twin Falls, Idaho, 27 grandchildren, and 39 great grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held on Saturday, January 29, 2019 at 11:00 a.m. at the Spanish Fork 10th Ward Chapel, 361 East 400 North, Spanish Fork, Utah. Family and friends may visit at the church prior to the service from 9:45-10:45 a.m. Interment will follow in the Spanish Fork City Cemetery.
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