Funeral services for Norma Lanie Mallow Romero, 77, of Lubbock and formerly of Brownwood, will be at 10:30 AM Saturday, November 7, 2009 in the Davis-Morris Funeral Home Chapel with Bill Slaymaker officiating. Interment will follow in Greenleaf Cemetery. The family will receive friends at the funeral home on Friday evening from 6:00 until 7:00.
Norma died Monday, October 2, 2009, in Lubbock. She was recovering from open-heart surgery when she died. Norma was born on November 19, 1931 in Brownwood, Texas to Clyde Mallow and Mattie Belle Gist Mallow. She was an only child, but grew up with many cousins and friends. She loved to help her father out at his gas station, and especially enjoyed her horses. As a teenager she also took flying lessons. She rode in many parades, participated in grand entrees and frequent rodeos where she competed in barrel racing. She and her father put on barrel races for the WWII prisoners, and they taught them how to rope cattle. Singing and art were her other great passions. She studied voice and piano and performed in the school choir, camp choir and base hospital. She was even honored to sing on the “Sons of the Pioneer” radio show. Although she dreamed of being a professional singer, she would never take money for her performances. She sang because she loved it.
She was a graduate of Brownwood High School. She was a member of the National Honor Society and Acapella choir. She was also a member of the Central Methodist Girl’s Sextet. She attended Southwest Texas State Teacher’s College at San Marcos and Daniel Baker College where she was a member of the college choir and Coggin Society. She was employed as an assistant in the laboratory at Memorial Hospital.
Norma married John A. Romero on September 11, 1953. They primarily lived in Alamogordo, New Mexico, and Bowie, Maryland. They had three daughters, Susan, Martha and Laura. She loved raising her daughters, cooking and sewing. During her time in New Mexico she also studied art and performed in shows, her favorite was “Oklahoma”. She painted in oils and acrylics, for which she won awards. During her time in Bowie, she sang in choirs and was very involved in her children’s school activities. One highlight was when she sang at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. with her choir. She always had room for her children’s friends. To many of them she became friend and confidant, just about adopting them as her own, especially Brenda Ciomei and Steve Laurenzano. She was loved for her sense of humor, an open door and her late night talks.
She later lived again in Brownwood, Alamogordo, New Mexico and finally in Lubbock. Norma worked as an Avon Representative, worked in a private medical office, and worked at Texas Tech University in the student medical department from which she retired. She was noted for her kindness and professional work with the students. She gave much time to volunteering for the Humane Society and working to rescue and find homes for stray animals. Through the years she had many dogs and cats. They were her constant companions.
Norma was a two-time breast cancer survivor. A friend wrote, “She has managed to take the simple joys of life from the things that are most important to her. These were her family, her friends (both 4 legged and 2 legged) and experiences throughout her seven plus decades of life.” She spent her last years enjoying her grand and great grandchildren, her cats, and keeping up with family and friends. A good way to describe her is as a complex and wonderful “work of art”. The essence of her, her eye for beauty, her beautiful voice, her sense of humor, her desire to love deeply, her tolerance in a crisis when you needed her to show up for you, these will be missed.
She was preceded in death by her parents. Her three children, Norma Susan McMenamy of Tuscon, AZ., Martha Lanie Romero Brickley, of Austin, Laura Michelle Hankins of Amarillo, survive her; as well as their husbands, John E. McMenamy, Michael D. Brickley and Eddie D. Hankins, and five grandchildren, Alyssa L. McMenamy Baker and her husband Paul Baker, Caitlin L. McMenamy, Heather P. Hankins and Don T. Hankins, John C. Brickley and one great grand child, Abby Lynn Hankins. She is also survived by a number of cousins and friends, all of which she loved without measure.
Her daughters would like to thank all of her family and friends that loved her so well all of these years. Our deepest thanks.
The family requests memorials be made in Norma’s memory to City of Lubbock, Animal Services, 401 N. Ash, Lubbock, 79403.
Condolences, memories, and tributes can be left for the family at www.mem.com
