Edward K. Norman

December 14, 1933 - January 2, 2021

Edward Kenneth Norman, loving uncle and great-uncle passed away January 2, 2021 at the Prestige Place in Clare. He was 87 years old. A memorial service is planned for when the pandemic is less of a threat to travel and gatherings. Ed was born December 14, 1933 in Detroit, the first son of Kenneth and Margaret Norman. Father and son moved to Cheboygan in 1939 after Margaret’s death from TB. Already remarkably feisty and independent, Ed was central to the care and supervision of three half-siblings. He loved football, married, and served in the Korean War. He came out a mechanic and worked in that field for twenty-five years. Divorced in the early sixties, he moved in with his biological sister who’d been adopted and separated from her father and brother until she graduated from high school, and who lost her husband in 1958. Ed served as father to her three children, moving the family ten miles north of Harrison, to a small cabin between Cranberry and Arnold Lake. He taught the kids to love the natural world and to enjoy the outdoors, fishing and hunting. After the kids were grown, he and Joyce moved to the north shore of Stevenson Lake to enjoy pontoon fishing, outdoor fires and visits from grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Ed’s last paying job was with Clare County Transit. In thirteen years, he advanced from part time driver, to dispatcher, to assistant supervisor, retiring in the year 2000. He shared a joyous fifty years with his sister until her death in 2013. Since then, he moved to Farewell. After a trip to Virginia and Pennsylvania to spend time with family, he settled down for nearly four years at Gateway Village in Clare. Left to cherish his memory are his nephews, Donald Socha of Mount Pleasant, and Timothy Socha of Sheboygan Falls WI; his niece, Margaret (Peggy) Challenger of Harrison; half-siblings, Gerald Norman of Galax, Virginia; Hazel Holtry of Newville, Pennsylvania, and Gloria Kay Sipies of Winston Salem N.C. Ed was preceded in death by his parents; sister, Joyce Socha, and brother, John (Jack). Arrangements for cremation were handled by the Clare Chapel of Stephenson-Wyman Funeral Home. On-line condolences may be left at www.stephenon-wyman.com