Norma Jean Boyle Crockett

Norma Jean Boyle Crockett, age 95, passed away on September 9, 2024, in Big Spring, TX.  She was born on April 8, 1929, in Hoisington, Kansas to Nellie Viola Boyle, a homemaker, and James Benjamin Boyle, a railroad carpenter and World War I Naval Veteran.

She spent her childhood in Hoisington, attending public school there and enduring the hardships of The Depression and The Dustbowl.  She always said that she considered herself and her family to be fortunate during those times because her father had steady work with the railroad.  She attended Junior High and High School in Hoisington, graduating in 1947. After graduation she moved to Denver, CO to attend secretarial college.  While there, she met a young sergeant in the Army Air Corps from Colorado City, TX, Don Crockett, Sr. They married in September 1948 and then moved to Cheyenne, WY.  Don, Sr. was honorably discharged from the service in 1949, and they moved to Texas so that he could attend college.  They drove from Wyoming to Texas in a tiny vehicle that Don Sr. had, supposedly, won in a game of chance just prior to being discharged.  At least that was the story that has become part of the family lore.

They first settled in Abilene, TX where Don Sr. attended McMurry College and Norma worked at Swift & Co.  Don, Jr. was born in 1950 and after Don, Sr.’s graduation from college, they moved to Big Spring, TX.  They both took jobs in the Big Spring Independent School District.  In 1954, they welcomed a daughter, Caren Lynn and in 1960, a second son, Randal Clay was born.  While raising her family, Norma worked as a school secretary, but the job she most enjoyed was as an elementary school librarian.  As a librarian she was able to combine her love for reading, her love for children, and her talent for organization into a rewarding career.

After forty years in Big Spring, she and Don, Sr. retired to the Meadow Lakes Community in Marble Falls, TX.  While there they began a nine-year traveling adventure, trailering all over the US and making new friends and acquaintances in New England, The Rocky Mountains and in the Northwest.  And as their travels expanded, the trailers got longer and longer.  They cherished their time in Meadow Lakes and during their time there, Norma admitted that she had never been happier.

After Don, Sr. passed away in 2001 Norma moved back to West Texas to be closer to family.  She settled in Midland and spent the next 14 years sharing meals with her neighbors and family members, attending church and Sunday school classes and being a very active mother and “Gran”.  She delved into family genealogy and loved researching the details of her family history.  Until later in life, when her memory began to fade a bit, she was the recognized family authority on everybody’s birthdays, everybody’s spouses, everybody’s jobs, and all the little details having to do with her extended family.

She moved again in 2015 to be closer to her daughter, son-in-law, son, and grandchildren in Big Spring.  In her final years she was a resident of Marcy Place Sr. Living and Park View Nursing Facility.  Despite her advancing age she continued in her role as family matriarch and as a source of inspiration, dignity, and kindness for all of us in our family.

Norma, “Gran” as she was affectionately called, was the mortar that held our family together, living almost a century. She was quick to laugh. She was slow to anger, and she was seldom critical of anyone. We will all miss her sly little smile and her kindness and wisdom.  And we will cherish the love and the dedication that she showed to all of us in her family.

Norma was a life-long member of the United Methodist Church having joined as a child, her mother’s United Brethren Congregation in Kansas. She was an active member of Wesley Methodist and First Methodist in Big Spring, First Methodist in Marble Falls and St. Luke’s Methodist in Midland.

She was predeceased by her parents, her older sister Ailene Boyle Sullivan, her husband Don Crockett, Sr. and her youngest son, Randal Clay Crockett.

She is survived by her oldest son, Dr. Don Crockett and wife Sandra of Midland, TX and her daughter Caren Greathouse and husband, Keneth, of Big Spring, TX. She is also survived by grandson Lee Marshall and wife, Emily, of Buda, TX, and granddaughter Norma Jean Sleeman and husband, Daniel, of Austin, TX.  She is also survived by grandson Matthew Yeats and wife, Janie, grandson Jeremy Yeats, and grandson Brandon Greathouse and wife, Sara, all of Big Spring, TX. She is also survived by her grandson Benjamin Crockett of Austin, TX and granddaughter Katie Morelion and husband, Warren, of Big Spring, TX. She is survived by fourteen great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.

Services will be 1:00pm Saturday, September 14, 2024, at The Peace Chapel at Trinity Memorial Park.

Arrangements are under the direction of Nalley-Pickle & Welch Funeral Home of Big Spring. Online condolences may be made at www.npwelch.com.

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