June 18, 1926 – August 22, 2020
Norma Beckman, 94, of Sandy, Utah, passed away on August 22, 2020, at Sunrise of Sandy Assisted Living Facility. She requested to be cremated and her ashes will be buried in the Timber Lake Cemetery in June 2021 beside her husband and son-in-law.
Norma Rosemary Bloom was born June 18, 1926, to Ture and Lilly (Lillian) Norman Bloom in the heavily Swedish and Italian town of Rockford, IL. Coming from a Swedish family, she learned to speak English when she started school. She attended East High School, where she was active in many clubs and organizations. There she would also meet, on a blind date, the love of her life, John “Jack” Burgess Beckman. Both graduated in June 1944.
Jack was soon off to the South Pacific theater, Okinawa, and Japan. Norma attended Rockford College (now University) and worked while she waited for Jack’s return from the war. The Depression and World War II would influence and toughen them for life.
The couple was married on August 16, 1946, in Rockton, IL. Unable to find nearby colleges that would admit both of them and provide married housing, they took a leap of faith and enrolled at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. They were the first people from Illinois to ever attend the University of Wyoming.
After Norma’s graduation from the University of Wyoming, the couple returned to Rockford, where their son, Tom, was born on August 16, 1949, exactly three years after their wedding date. Daughter Johnath (Johny) Lynn was born in 1951. They lived in the Rockford area until both children went to college and then they bought a mountain ranch at Phippsburg, CO, where they summered yearling cattle. They operated a fruit shipping store in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, where they wintered. Reserving the spring and fall for travel, they crossed the Atlantic 23 times and the Pacific 4 times. They cruised every river in Europe from end to end, visited nearly every state in the US, pioneered China tourism for a company, and even christened a new cruise ship.
In the 1990s they retired to Saint George, UT. Inseparable, “Norm” and Jack continued their travel odysseys until Jack passed away in 2016, one week short of their 70th anniversary. Their zest for life and humor was always intact. Norma moved to Sandy, UT, in 2018 to an assisted living facility to be closer to her son’s family.
Norma is survived by her son, Tom (Dayna) Beckman of Sandy, UT; daughter Johny Weber of Timber Lake; four grandchildren, Amanda and Shane Weber, Amy Reeves and Patrick Beckman; nine great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild; her sister, Barbara Simmons of Fountain Hills, AZ; her special niece, Lori Magazine; and several nieces and nephews.
Norma was preceded in death by her parents, Ture and Lillian; her husband, Jack; her son-in-law, Jeff Weber; and her brother-in-law, Vernon Simmons, Jr.
In lieu of flowers, memorials can be made to the Klein Ranch, PO Box 72, Timber Lake, SD 57656.
(Johny Weber’s address is PO Box 37, Timber Lake, SD 57656.)