John and Margaret Somers raised four girls on their farm in Ivesdale, Ill. Sister Norma was the third child. It was on the farm that she learned many of the lessons she would impart to others through 75 years of profession and ministry as a Dominican sister of Springfield.
She joined the community in 1947, right after graduation from Sacred Heart Academy, where she was a boarding student. After her first profession on January 3, 1949, she embarked on a long teaching career. She taught primary grades at St. Christina School Chicago, 1949-1959 until the untimely death of the eighth-grade teacher propelled her into junior high school, 1959-1962. At Holy Ghost School, Jerseyville, she was principal and junior high teacher, 1962-1968, then transferred again to Chicago where she was principal of Our Lady of Grace School, 1968-1974. Her next move was to St. Lawrence O’Toole School, Matteson, Ill., 1974-1981, where she taught grade 8 for a year and then served as principal.
She was principal of Our Saviour School, Jacksonville, 1981-1987, and then at St. Dominic, Quincy, Ill., 1987-1989. In 1989 she was elected to the General Council for the Dominican Sisters and served in that role 1989-1997.
Once free of her leadership duties, at the request of the Dominican Sisters in Kosice, Slovak Republic, Sister Norma spent a year with them, teaching English and imparting her knowledge of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council to a community that was, until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1988, without access to much information about ecclesiastical matters.
When she returned to Springfield in 1998 she staffed the neighborhood office for the Springfield Project, a collaborative initiative led by the University of Illinois Springfield to provide community organizing and support services to the much-neglected east side of Springfield. She continued this work, 1998-2001, while also managing responsibility for the Dominican’s fleet of vehicles, a task she continued for 17 years. During that time, she relocated to Immaculate Conception Parish Shelbyville, providing pastoral services there, 2001-2003. Then for two more years, 2003-2005, she lived and served at Holy Family Parish, Decatur, Ill., in the same capacity. She was motherhouse treasurer, 2005-2008, worked as a volunteer parish visitor at St. Katharine Drexel Parish, Springfield, 2008-2009, and when she relinquished that position returned to the motherhouse to live, continuing to administer the details of a large fleet of vehicles until 2015.
More about Sister Norma
Sister Norma graciously allowed the community to share the story of her life and ministry as part of the Christmas appeal in 2023. Those stories and videos are still available here.
