Norma Elwell Oberg, 101, daughter of the late Roy F. Elwell and Sadie (Phillips) Elwell, passed away peacefully after a brief illness on January 14, 2025, in the presence of loved ones. She was preceded in death by her beloved husband of 57 years, Howard Ernest Oberg, her brother Robert Elwell, her sister-in-law Doris Oberg Mitchell, other dear family members, and cherished friends. She is survived by her two children Kimberly Waxman (Bruce) and Rex Oberg (Mary Beth), and her beloved granddaughter, Caroline Waxman.
Norma was born and raised in Warren, Ohio, and attended Warren G. Harding High School. She excelled at piano and, beginning in 1934, and at age 10, she studied piano for several years at Dana’s Musical Institute of Warren, Ohio. Norma attended Ohio Wesleyan University and majored in world religions, After the war, resumed her studies in music at Youngstown State University, where she carpooled to classes with a family friend, Howard, who had returned from the war and was also at Youngstown State University under the GI Bill. Norma and Howard married in 1949.
After a few transfers in Ohio for Howard’s job with Lawyers Title Insurance Corporation, the family moved to Richmond, Virginia in 1964. Both Norma and Howard were active in the adult and children’s Sunday school and other programs at St. Giles Presbyterian Church. Norma taught piano lessons throughout the 1970s and then joined the travel agency industry in the 1980s. In the 1990s, Norma became an award-winning instructor of travel software and served as an advisor to the Board of Directors at Continental Airlines, attending their monthly meetings in Houston. She and Howard were fortunate enough to travel the world. Their trips to China, Africa, the United Kingdom, and Scandinavia created special memories. However, of all their travels, their favorite destinations remained Nantucket, Cape Cod, and the back deck of their townhouse in Richmond. After Howard’s death in 2006, Norma moved from Virginia to Pennsylvania, to reside at Maris Grove Senior Living Community where she enjoyed making new friends, attending lectures on current events, and sharing her considerable knitting skills with others.
If asked to reflect on her 101 years, Norma would no doubt include living through the Great Depression and World War II, her love of God and music, reading daily newspapers from cover-to-cover, cheering her favorite sports teams, enjoying a good laugh–often at her own expense, and most of all her love for her family. Norma was known by many names: “Jean” to her immediate family, “Norm” to Howard, “Mom” to her children, “101” to her aides; but she loved the name her granddaughter gave her, “Gaga,” most of all. Truly, Norma touched everyone who knew her. She, and her daily prayers for us all, will be missed.
Her family would like to acknowledge the excellent care Norma received in her final years at Maris Grove with special gratitude to the 3rd floor staff at Evergreen Point and the Willow Tree Hospice staff who nurtured her spirit and soul through prayer, music, and reading stories to her. Norma was a student, a teacher, intellectually curious, and she loved historical biographies. The last biography Norma’s reader read to her was about Helen Keller. Not only had Norma been trained by the Red Cross during WWII to transcribe books into braille, but Norma, in the last two years of her life, was also blind. For those who wish to remember Norma, the family suggests that charitable contributions be made in her memory to the Perkins School for the Blind: https://www.perkins.org/.
Norma’s ashes will be interred along with Howard’s at a private service in the spring.
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