Person:Norma Ellis (1)

Norma Rae had a "Delayed Birth Certificate" signed by her father Ed. Aldridge Ellis on 26th of February 1957. Ed. was 84 years old. Certificate was filed March 1, 1957. Certificate states that Ed was 46 years of age at time of Norma Rae's birth.

When Norma Rae was small, she had an appendicitis attack. Her parents took her to West Plains, Mo. from Salem, Ark in the back of an old "Model T?" car without shocks. She said her operation cost $200.00. Sarah Wood Ellis, her mother, stayed with her in the hospital for five weeks. They borrowed money from Albert Cunningham to pay for the operation. Norma Rae lived on South Fork on the Billie Cunningham farm. On the back of the postcard with a picture of the hospital, Christa Hogan Hospital, in West Plains are the dates November 26, 1927 and January 4, 1928. This could be the time that Norma Rae stayed in the hospital. She always said that she stayed about 5 weeks and her mother stayed with her during that time.

Norma Rae suffered from a loss of smell due to her high fevers at the time of the appendix operation. The lancing of the appendix was the "way it used to be done" according to an old doctor who assisted in her surgery for a hysterectomy in later life. Norma Rae still had her appendix at that time, just drained and left in the body. At the time of her appendix operation, there wasn't another way to perform the surgery. Norma Rae commented often that the ether they used wasn't pleasant either.

The family moved from the Cunningham farm to Clarence Smith's farm in Camp, Ark. This was not far from Salem on the road to Mammoth Springs, Ark.

Norma Rae Ellis attended school at Spring Valley in Arkansas (Fulton County) and the school in Salem, Arkansas before moving to Oklahoma. In Oklahoma, she attended a school called Neff which is no longer there. It appears she did not return to school when they moved to Missouri. She was married by 1935.

Norma Rae lived in Fulton County, Arkansas until about the age of 11. Her father, per family stories, lost the farm to the Cunningham family. They packed up in a truck with a tarp over the kids and moved to Webber Falls, Oklahoma to the Noah Ellis place. Then they moved to another location near Webber Falls. While in Ok, the family picked cotton. Norma Rae hated to pick cotton. The family of 11 (note: not sure how many of the family went to Oklahoma;some of the sons may have been gone by then)plus parents, lived in a two-room shack. They used newspapers to insulate the walls of the house from the cold. The children slept end-to-end, 4 to a bed in this 2-room shack. The parents slept in the kitchen area and the kids in the adjoining room. The "girls" would put their makeup on for dates using the chicken coops at the back of the house to prop up mirrors. They rode horseback on their dates even though they were dressed in heels and hose. Oklahoma was still more a frontier state in 1930 so Norma remembered. She said there were gangsters, and almost no law.

When Norma Rae was through the eighth grade,(1932 per notes for Ed Ellis) the family moved to Jasper, Missouri, living at the home which became Clarence and Bertha Ellis Smith's home. The farm was purchased by Clarence and Bertha Ellis Smith for the family. Clarence and Bertha Smith were still living in California at the time. Norma Rae told her daughter, Donna, that corn was fourteen cents a Bushel when they moved to Jasper County.

With so many "girls" in the family, the area males were coming to the house to see them. The boys would come to the house in their cars filled with "dates". The girls would watch them come up to the house and pick out which one they would go out with. Norma Rae said sometimes they would go to Jasper, Missouri and climb a tree behind the gas station for entertainment or go to a movie. Sometimes the car would get stuck in the mud because the roads weren't paved, and they would all have to get out and push. Norma Rae said on "date night" the powder was so thick in the big upstairs bedroom you couldn't breathe.

Per Norma Rae in conversations with Donna, her daughter, she met Frank O. Cowan at the "Jap" Wood's place in Jasper County. Mr. Wood was the father of Louise Probert. She also said she saw Frank at a dance at the Dudenville Store one time and he had on white spats and was really neat looking. She said she decided then and there that he would be a reliable man because he cared about himself.

Norma Rae and Frank joined the Grace Baptist Church in Bakersfield, California about 1937 or 1938.

At the time of her brother's death in 1973, Norma Rae was living in Golden City, Missouri. In 1975, she and Frank moved to Springfield, Missouri, Greene County. It was in Springfield, Greene County, Missouri, that they were divorced in August of 1975.

Norma Rae was called "Dave" by all of her nieces and nephews and "Rink" by her older brothers and sisters. The name Dave came from being teased about a tall boy at school in Arkansas named David Gray. Her family began to call her David Gray, then shortened it to Dave and the name stuck. The name Rink was given to Norma Rae and the name Nod to Lodemia when they were very young. They were the two youngest of the family and the names came from the nursery rhyme about Rink and Nod.

Obituary for Norma R. Cowan Services for Mrs. Norma R. Cowan 61, of 2126 S. Fairway, will be at 2 PM Friday in Knell Mortuary, Carthage, with the Rev. Jim E. Jeffries officiating. Burial will be in the Fasken Cemetery, Carthage.

Mrs. Cowan died Tuesday afternoon at the home of a daughter (Donna Atkinson) in Jefferson City after a long illness.

A Native of Salem, Ark., she was reared (in Fulton County, Oklahoma and Jasper, Mo) at Carthage and later lived in (in Golden City, not Lamar) Lamar where she was a real estate salesperson (with Southwest Land Company owned by the couple). She moved to Springfield in 1974. She was a member of National Heights Baptist Church, Springfield.

Survivors include two daughters, Mrs. Norma Tuttle, Webster, NY, and Mrs. Donna Atkinson, Jefferson City a brother Joe Ellis, Lindsay, Calif.; six sisters, Mrs. Flava Bone and Mrs. Lodema Lemmon, both of Bakersfield, Calif. Mrs. Verna White, Visalia, Cailf., Mrs. Leola Pyle, Jasper, Mrs. Veda Quade and Mrs. Naamah Cowan, both of Carthage; and three grandchildren. Parenthesis contain corrected information by Donna Atkinson. Memorial contributions may be made to Springfield Civil Defense or Cox Medical Center Radiation Department.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Norma Rae Ellis Cowan, in Find A Grave.
2. ↑ Norma Rae was born on a farm at Salem, Arkansas about 2 miles east of Salem, Arkansas. She was delivered by a Dr. Woods.