Myrtis Marks Norman, a long-time resident of Yazoo City, MS, died peacefully on Friday, December 6, 2024, surrounded by her family at age 98.
Services for Myrtis will take place in the Chapel at Stricklin-King Funeral Home in Yazoo City, MS on Tuesday, December 10, 2024. Visitation will take place from 1:00 PM until 2:00 PM. Services will begin at 2:00 PM with Father George Woodliff officiating. Burial will follow in Glenwood Cemetery.
Myrtis was born on December 22, 1925, near Howard in Holmes County, Mississippi, the only child of Helen and William Marks. Born prematurely weighing 2 pounds and 12 ounces, Myrtis fit in a shoebox and was kept warm with hot water bottles. Tragedy would mar Myrtis’s early life with her father, Willie, succumbing to pneumonia when she was a toddler and her mother, Helen, dying when Myrtis was 7 following an operation to remove her gallbladder. Following her mother’s death, Myrtis went to live with her grandparents, Henry and Mattie Brock. The Brocks, the parents of 10 children themselves, including Myrtis’s mother, Helen, gladly welcomed their eldest granddaughter into their home where they raised her like a daughter. Myrtis also spent many weekends with her mother’s sister, Lillian and her family.
At Tchula High School, Myrtis played the piccolo. She was also an excellent twirler, winning a superior rating as a twirler, the highest rating achievable in a state held contest. On a visit to Yazoo City to spend the night with family friends, the Vaughans, Myrtis met her future husband, William “Billy” Ross Norman. They quickly fell for one another and married on June 27, 1942, at the Episcopal Church in Yazoo City. The couple were married for 66 years until Billy’s death in 2009. The couple’s marriage produced five sons: William Ross Jr. (Bill), Harvey Lee, Edwin “Eddie” Marks, Patrick “Pat” Frederick, and Michael “Mike” Harris. Five months after their wedding, the Army Air Corps swore Billy Ross in, where he would achieve the rank of Flight Officer. While Billy was away, Myrtis lived with his parents at their home on North Street, affectionately known as the Norman House. Myrtis accompanied her husband to training in Oklahoma and lived for a time with him and their son, Bill, in Texas.
After the war, the couple made their permanent home on Grand Avenue in Yazoo City, where they would remain for the rest of their union. In 1957, Myrtis found her life’s work opening Norman’s Nursery School in her home on Grand Avenue. Myrtis operated Norman’s Nursery until retiring in 2000. Over four decades, Myrtis cared for many Yazoo residents’ children on whom she left a lasting impact. Myrtis continued to live in her house on Grand Avenue until 2015, moving to Beau Ridge in Ridgeland before moving back to Yazoo City to the Martha Coker Green Houses.
Her life hobbies included cooking, such as her famous spaghetti with chili powder seasoning and squash dressing, gardening flowers, reading magazines about the home, such as Southern Living, and good conversation. She was an avid viewer of The Price is Right, Rachel Ray, and HGTV. Most of all, Myrtis loved giving to others and always gave unselfishly for the joy she knew her gifts would bring to others.
Preceding Myrtis in death were her father William, mother, Helen, brother, Edwin Marks, sister, Elizabeth Temple; and husband, Billy Ross. Myrtis is survived by her five sons Bill (Martie) Norman, of Ardmore, AL; Harvey Norman, of Yazoo City; Eddie (Debbie) Norman, of Mason, OH; Pat (Carol) Norman, of Yazoo City; and Mike Norman, of Yazoo City; 11 grandchildren; and 13 great-grandchildren.
Myrtis’s family would like to thank Julie Hoffman, Jennifer Bowman, and the staff of Martha Coker Green House in Yazoo City for the care they provided to Myrtis during her time living there and Adoration Hospice in her last hours.
