Norma Jean Sexton, 67, Arkansas City, died Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2006, at her home in Arkansas City. Funeral services will be held at Hawks Funeral Home at 2 p.m. Friday, Jan. 20, 2006. Interment will be in the Memorial Lawn Cemetery, Arkansas City. She was born on July 19, 1938, in Bartlesville, Okla., the daughter of John Will and Ruthie Ann Pauline Keithly Bridges. In the early 1940s, the family lived in Texas, moving to Arkansas City in 1945. Norma graduated from Arkansas City High School in 1957 and later attended Cowley County Community Jr. College. She married Vernon Lee Brewer on June 2, 1957, in Arkansas City. He died on Aug. 6, 1979. She later married Max Sexton on Aug. 27, 1982, in Miami, Okla. Norma was retired from the Presbyterian Manor where she had been a certified medical aide for 22 years, prior to which she had worked at Medicalodge East. She was a member of the West Kansas Avenue Church of God. Survivors include her husband, Max Sexton, of the home in Arkansas City; one son, Kenneth Brewer, of El Dorado; two step-sons, Johnnie Max Sexton, Wichita, and Lonnie R. Sexton, of Ottawa; one stepdaughter, Lana Moore, of Fond du Lac, Wis.; one brother, John R. Bridges, of Arkansas City; two grandchildren, Eliott Brewer and Emma Brewer; and three stepgrandchildren, Casie and Katie Sexton and Michael Cook. She was preceded in death by her parents, and husband, Vernon. Friends may call at the funeral home from 5 to 8 p.m. today and 9 a.m. to noon Friday.

A memorial has been established with Harry Hynes Memorial Hospice, contributions may be left at the funeral home. Arrangements are under the direction of Hawks Funeral Home, Arkansas City.

Arkansas City Traveler 01/19/06∼Norma Jean Sexton was born on July 19, 1938 in Bartlesville, Oklahoma in a one bedroom house. She grew up in Galveston, Texas and in Arkansas City, Kansas. She was a nurse for Presbyterian Manor for about 35 years and cared for many different people during her career. She was a Godly woman who spent a lot of her time studying the Bible. She was working mother of one son whom she adopted with her husband from Frankfurt, Germany. She was a loving wife and mother and caretaker for those who did not even know her personally. Norma made a great impact on those she loved and took care of during her life on Earth. Her first marriage was tradgically ended when an oncoming car crossed the center line in 1978. She pressed forward and found new love with her second husband 5 years later and they were married until she passed away after battling cancer on January 18, 2006. She left behind her husband, her son, and two grandchildren. The legacy she left with those on Earth were ones of love, kindness, gentleness, humility, humbleness, her amazing french toast, and of course her beauty. Her memories will live on in the lives of those she left behind for many years. She was a lover and a fighter and although she was quiet, she took what she believed very seriously and educated those around her with her knowledge of the God she loved.