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Helena Independent Record, August 20, 2006
Norma L. Heiman (Picture included)
Norma L. Heiman, 88, of Helena, passed away Saturday, Aug. 19, 2006, at the Waterford on Saddle Drive.
A memorial service will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 22, at 11 a.m. from St. Peter's Episcopal Cathedral.
Norma was born Aug. 3, 1919, on a hot day in Hinsdale to a homestead family. Norma graduated from high school in Glasgow and graduated from Northern Montana College at Havre, a two-year school at that time. She then went to Opheim, north of Glasgow to teach at a country school, at $85 a month. The class had about 10 students, all Norwegian - Norma was Swedish. The next year she taught at Box Elder. It was World War II, and she heard about the Women's Army Corps, and joined to get away from teaching in Montana. Stationed as a lieutenant in Army intelligence near Washington D.C., she met and married a fine young captain, Lee Heiman. After the war, they lived for a short time in Chicago and then came to Montana to attend college. Then while Norma had babies to care for, Lee was called back into the Army for the Korean War. After the Korean War, they spent some time in the Philippines.
When they came home again, they moved to California. On a visit to Montana they stayed overnight in Brigham City, Utah, and Lee saw an opportunity with building rockets in the new space program and got a job there. Norma took a job teaching Navajo Indians at a boarding school in Brigham City and with the BIA on the reservation. She continued college during summers, getting her master's degree in education, which led to a grant from Utah State University and to a doctorate in education, producing books for Navajo children. She retired from the BIA and was employed as a consultant in school accreditation on Indian reservations, getting 12 schools accredited before retiring in 1987.
Norma and Lee lived in Billings until he died in 1992, and she moved to Helena to be close to her son and family.
She is survived by four children, Lee Heiman, Jr. of Helena, Cathy Jones of Akron, Ohio, Meg Neihaus, of Conway, Ark., and Paul Heiman of Moorcroft, Wyo.; eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Family prefers memorials to the Montana Historical Society, 225 North Roberts, Helena, MT 59601. Hagler-Anderson Funeral Home was entrusted with local arrangements.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1919 - 2006 (87 years)