Norma Jean Reed

Norma Reed died April 30. She was the widow of Roy Reed. They were married for 65 years.

Norma is survived by a sister, Ann Ellen of El Dorado and her husband, Ray Ellen; a brother, Ray Pendleton of El Dorado; a daughter, Cindy Buck of Massachusetts; a son, John Reed of Maumelle and his wife, Angie Clingmon-Reed, five grandchildren, Bernard, Henry, Vincent, Terry and Sarah, a great-granddaughter, Cerese, the brand new baby daughter of Henry and Helen; three step-grandchildren, Stanley, Amber and Tony, and a step-great-grandson, Roman, who at 10 is taller than his "big granny" was.

Norma Jean Pendleton was born in El Dorado on May 1, 1931, and became the first member of her family to attend or graduate from college. Her degree in Home Economics is from Louisiana Tech.

Roy was a newspaper reporter. He and Norma lived in Joplin, Missouri, Ypsilanti, Michigan, Little Rock, Cambridge, Mass., Atlanta, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, London, England and Hogeye, Arkansas, which is near Fayetteville.

For a few years in the 1970s, in New Orleans, she held the only paying job she ever had, in Tulane’s political science department. She was office mom.

Her cooking was the talk of the town. Favorite dishes included crawfish etoufe and gumbo. She baked French bread and at Christmas baked stollen, a sweet bread she gave to friends. She was often asked to bring her apple pie to other people’s dinner parties.

Norma was an expert seamstress and later in life became a master quilter. Her quilts were large, with hundreds of small pieces stitched perfectly to create intricate patterns. It usually took about a year for her to finish a quilt.

She was a reliable volunteer at the Washington County libraries, especially the West Fork branch. She belonged to a book club and took pains to read every month’s selection, even if it didn’t appeal to her.

For many years Norma was a poll worker at the Hogeye precinct and rose to become the head election official for Hogeye. Its ballots were always accurate and the box always delivered on time.

Norma and Roy were regulars at the Sunday morning breakfast club that began at Gaylord’s and switched to the Village Inn. After Roy’s death, she was able to stay on at Hogeye due to the help of Mark Findahl, the unofficial mayor of Hogeye and a son of Nadine Findahl. Norma and Nadine were close friends and drove to town to buy groceries each week.

In 2020 Norma backed her car into Hogeye Creek, totaling the vehicle, so she moved to Maumelle to live with John and Angie. She and Angie didn’t always agree on what to cook for Thanksgiving dinner, but Norma still said they had a “love-love” relationship.

Norma read lots and lots of books, especially murder mysteries. She liked British dramas and mysteries on TV, and really liked Inspectors Morse and Lewis, Longmire, and the Great British Baking Show.

In August 2022 she moved into Willow Grove, an assisted living facility in Sherwood. A dear friend, Valerie Bradford, was with her when she died in bed of old age.