Norma Connolly DeBevoise was a friend to everyone she knew. She was warm, loving, charitable, and kind - and she knew instinctively how to make people feel welcome and wanted. Touch was important to her, This was probably a gift acquired by being born in the middle of a large family.

Norma was born on September 25, 1921 in Dallas Plantation (Rangeley, Maine) to Guy Bernard and Addie Flora Nile Scribner. She had six sisters and two brothers: Shirley Thomas (Otisfield), Harriet Hay (Woolwich), Montrice Wiles (Norway, ­deceased), Patricia Curtis (Harrison), Charlotte Brien (Harrison), Lois Rose (Harrison, ­deceased), Kendrick Scribner (Oxford), and Erland Scribner (Norway). Six of the Scribners and their offspring had a wonderful reunion last summer in Harrison - a day that lifted Norma's spirits greatly.

Norma was married as a young woman to Leland Barker with whom she had one child, Wi11iam Barker, who lives with his wife Phyllis in Buckfield. In 1950 Norma married Michael Francis Connolly of Portland with whom she lived for twenty years at 28 Atlantic Street on Munjoy Hill until Mike's death in 1970. Together they had three children: Michael Coleman Connolly who lives in Portland with his life partner Rebecca S. Hitchcock; Peter Lawrence Connolly and his wife Sherry of Portland; and Mary Frances Connolly and her husband Michael Delahunt who live in Yarmouth. She is also survived by her grandchildren and great grandchildren. In 1976 Norma married Paul DeBevoise of Falmouth. With and near Paul's children, Jim, Diana, Cathy, and John, they lived on the Pleasant Hill Road in Falmouth until their mutual retirements in 1986 from the telephone company and Paul's electrical business. At that time they moved to Leisure World in Mesa, Arizona near Paul's son John and his wife Wendy and children Stephanie and Nicholas. Following several relaxing years in Mesa, Norma suffered a severe stroke that left her with expressive aphasia, i.e., inability to speak or write. When Paul died shortly thereafter in 2001, Norma returned to Portland where she lived for three years at The Woods at Canco, and then since January, 2005 at Saint Joseph's Manor. Our family wishes to express our deep appreciation for the professional and loving care given to Mom at both of these excellent facilities, especially Kim and Trudy at the Woods and all the nice workers in Wing C and D at Saint Joseph's.

Among Norma's proudest accomplishments, aside from family, was earning her G.E.D. in lieu of a high school diploma. She and Mike attended Evening School together and they also both received their real estate brokers' license that Norma used locally. She was a member of the Congress Street Methodist Church near the Observatory on Munjoy Hill until its merger with Chestnut Street Church. She especially enjoyed waiting on tables for the church's annual May Breakfast where one could sample exotic breakfast drinks such as pineapple-grapefruit juice! At the East End Beach Norma eventually learned to swim, after making sure that all her children could do so first. She never liked putting her face in the water, however, so the sidestroke was her forte. While at 28 Atlantic Street our family was especially close to our neighbors, the Mastropasqua family, and that continues to this day. In Mesa, Norma exercised her love for writing by creating a regular column for the Leisure World News, including an especially personal reflection on her visit to Ireland, July 1-12, 1992, a story she titled "Up She Flew!"

Norma was a hard worker and she taught us all the value of work. She always said, "If it's not happening easily, you're doing something wrong."

After time as a very young worker in a leather-tanning factory, Norma worked for many years as an accomplished waitress. Among the business she served were the Splendid Restaurant (for Arthur and Shirley Hawkes), the Casco Room at the St. Regis Hotel, the Tavern in the Town at the Eastland Hotel (where she was always treated kindly by the Dunphy family), along with periodic special trips to the Poland Spring House (where she worked for the Graffam family). As a young woman she spread her wings and waitressed her way as far as Wichita Falls, Texas before succumbing to homesickness as Christmas approached. During World War II Norma worked at Pratt and Whitney in Connecticut and as a "Rosie the Riveter" welder at the New England Shipyards in South Portland.

Her final two jobs were most rewarding. Putting her G.E.D. to use, between 1965-1970 she worked as a teacher's aide at the North School where she made lifelong friends.

When she finished there the children presented Norma with a small plaque that she still treasures which simply reads: "Norma Connolly Teacher-Friend." From 1970 through her retirement in 1986, Norma worked at New England Tel & Tel, then NYNEX, then Verizon at 45 Forest Avenue and I Davis Farm Road, She was a Telephone Pioneer. These items are merely a listing of facts. What Norma was really about was love.

She bubbled over with love and this affected everyone with whom she came into contact.

She made the world a much better place. When Munjoy Hill was supposedly a "tough" place to raise a family, Norma would stretch lights over the basketball court and hold summer evening dances for the kids from all nearby street. No trouble, only fun. When urban renewal took away a nearby house, she made the empty space into a garden, one of the largest on the east end, with peas by the 4th of July and strawberries al1 summer!

One of Norma's favorite sayings epitomized her energy and zest for life:

"Count that day lost whose low descending sun views from thy hand no worthy object done."


There will be a brief memorial service at Jones, Rich, and Hutchins 199 Woodford St., Portland, Monday April 17 at 11 AM.

The family will conduct a private interment ceremony at Evergreen Cemetery at a later date.

Published in Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram on Apr. 14, 2006