Norma Loraine Wallace

The world lost quite a remarkable woman today - we will miss you so Grandma Norma Wallace. Ninety-five amazing years, too many adventures to detail here, smart, funny and engaging always. What a blessing that you were in no pain and remembered more than I do at less than half your age. So much love and thanks to a grand lady of our family! by Amy Wallace Potter



The world lost one of my favorite people today :( My grandma, Norma, was just one kind, fun, quick witted lady. She had just turned 95. Some of my fondest childhood memories are with her and Gramps up in Lakeside. Always lots of games and the best homemade mac n' cheese, spaghetti and meatballs, and apple pie! Grandma was all about the grandkids and the great grandkids. She will be greatly missed!! Love you, Grandma! by Lisa Wallace Pintok



IN HER OWN WORDS:



"I was born in Newton, Kansas on July 24, 1921 to Christian Kliewer and Arpa Schmidt (the year of the big flood on the Arkansas River at Great Bend, near where we lived in a small 2 room house in the town of Dundee.) My sister Melba was three years old. Grandparents Schmidt lived about three miles away. I grew up with Aunt Effie and Uncle Johnnie (Junior) who were seven and five years older. My Uncle Antone and Aunt Mayme lived nearby also and their son Gene (1 year younger) and his younger sister, Lois, were also companions. I was the second child. My sister Melba was three years older and another sister, Merle, was four years younger. My younger brother, Homer, who was four years Merle's junior, had a lot to put up with (he didn't turn out too bad). I attended country school for three years, then we moved to Newton and I went to "town school", then back to Pawnee Rock, near Great Bend and Dundee and after several years in country school it was decided we should all go to town because Melba was ready for High School. When she was ready for college we moved again to Newton so she could go to Bethel College. I graduated from Newton High and later attended Bethel College for two years. While we lived in Pawnee Rock we lived in the old stone house my great grandparents built when they came to this country. (Mennonites from Volhynia, South Russia in 1874) The house was lived in by members of the Schmidt family until the 1990's.



While we lived in Newton, my sister Melba died at the age of 21 from a rare heart infection which is now treatable with antibiotics. My dad died just two years later of cancer. My mother then decided to move the family to Tulsa, Okla. There I worked for an oil speculator and then for Douglas Aircraft. This was during WWII. I met Lt. Lew Wallace and just 5 months later we were married in Tampa, Fla. Lew was sent to England, shot down on his second mission over Germany in Sept. 1944. He then spent 9 months as a prisoner of war. Jim was 4 months old when Lew returned. We lived briefly in the Castle in Spokane [where Christi was born] and then moved to Corvallis, Oregon where Lew attended OSU [Steve was born here]. We spent a year in Honolulu, Hawaii and then returned to OSU for graduate school. Lew worked for the state of Oregon at Milton-Freewater, then came to Montana [in 1955 where Lew worked for USDA], spent two years in Nigeria [1975-6 where Lew worked as entomology researcher on cereal insects for the USAID] and retired to Lakeside, MT." [by Norma]



Lew died at Lakeside, MT in 2006 and Norma died on August 29, 2016 in Bozeman, MT at Highgate Sr. Living. Survivors include sister Merle Schwendimann, children Jim [Liz] Wallace, Christi Wallace Small, Steve [Rachael] Wallace, and grandchildren Jim [Jeana] Small, Amy [Jeff] Wallace Potter, and Lisa [Jake] Wallace Pintok.



Her ashes will be spread at Whistler’s Hill in Lakeside, MT in the spring. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Norma’s honor to the Montana Veteran’s Affairs Division at PO Box 5715 Helena, MT 59604-5715 or Bozeman Chapter Montana Association for the Blind at PO Box 6797 Bozeman, MT 59771