Recently, there has been much ado about the old First Christian Church, which is getting much needed tender loving care and in stages of restoration. But it was Jean Norman and her friends that first tried to renovate the historic building. Her, along with Carrie Waller, Norma Wallace, Linda Wall, M.E. Curtis, Dale Rideout, Karen Krantz and Scott Jones formed the Howe Historical Society back in late 1993 and their efforts actually focused on a historical home that was proposed to be torn down in order to build what is now the auxiliary gym next to the old 1938 Howe Schools building on Denny Street.
After their efforts were lost on the historic home, they turned their attention to the old church on the corner of O’Connell and Denny Streets.
“The city had come in and took some of the molding and beautiful stuff including the bell out of it so it was pretty well stripped.” said Norman. “They told us a long time ago that we could have the bell back, but we never could figure out how a bunch of women were going to get that bell back. There were some groups in there and some kids knocked in some of the panels and it was heavily damaged. One of our first goals was to try and get the foundation done and we started fundraisers.”
J.C. and Carrie Waller began to hold garage sales at the location weekly for five years in order to raise money for the structure. That money raised eventually became part of the $13,000 that just repaired the foundation last week. It only took 22 years to get it done, but it has finally happened.
The Howe Historical Society that started in 1993 became left to Norman and Waller to maintain and the two that worked so hard to fulfill their dream just finally ran out of gas. “I kept it up until two years ago.” said Norman. “I just got tired of dealing with the IRS and the yearly reports.”
The money that the historical committee had sat in an account accumulating interest over the years in hopes of one day going towards the restoration of the church, but Norman admitted it seemed hopeless.
“We only still had that money because we could only have given it to a non-profit organization.” said Norman. “We desperately wanted to give it to the library and Anna, TX had talked about it but we just never did do it and we kept waiting and I’m glad we did.”
The Howe Historical Society had great meetings with well-known speakers such as R.C. Vaughan and even had a tour of historical homes in Howe.
“We did a lot of fundraising.” said Norman. “We spent several thousand on refurbishing the old windows (of the old church).”
The Howe Historical Society also put a new roof on the building several years ago which is still in great shape. They also had it painted in the 1990s.
Norman made plans for displays in the church and kept things from the garage sales. She said their plan was highly detailed and even included paintings of old Howe churches by Charles Farris. Many historical items were even collected and stored in the building for purposes of displaying and creating a Howe Historical Museum. Those items had sat in the building for years unprotected from the elements of broken windows and the historical items were recently removed for their protection.
Norman said that Bill Collins was also a big contributor and donated money for the Mame Roberts Garden gazebo beside the old church.
“We’d hoped to use that for a focal point for weddings and such.” said Norman. “It’s still beautiful. But I think the old building is worth saving and Howe needs it. It looks so horrible, but thank goodness it did or I don’t think anything would’ve been done. This is going to have to be a giant effort and that’s what we’ve been waiting for. I think everyone is grateful that something is being done. It was amazing to me at the amount of people that it bothered.”
Norman’s vision of the finished building is some portion of it be used to show the historical aspect of the city. She also understands the need for it to be occupied frequently and maintained.
The vision that Norman had for the church is only a small part of what she’s been able to accomplish in this city and beyond. She was also extremely instrumental in kick-starting the Howe Community Library in the early 1980s.
In the early 1980s, Mr. James Ferguson had given 12,000 books to The City of Howe and was very unhappy because nothing had been done with them. He came to town and approached Howe State Bank to find someone to start a library. The bank told him that he needed to contact Jean Norman. He showed up at her house.
“The only reason I let him in was because he was a brother to one of my dear friends in Bonham.” said Norman. “After he left, I called some people and we met and started working on the library right then.”
With the help from the city, they were able to use the former Davenport place, which sat on Denny Street at the present site of Memorial Park. They renovated that small building and hired a local lady to help and be the first librarian.
“Some of the Howe pee-wee cheerleaders came and helped me sort all of those books.” said Norman. “I had the Dewey Decimal System and new where to put them.”
The Friends of the Library was formed and they began to start fundraisers by bringing in The Von Erichs to wrestle at Bulldog Stadium in wrestling matches in the early 1980s. “Some of the hardest work I’ve ever done was setting up those hundreds of chairs.” said Norman. “That was very successful and we had some very successful bike races.”
They even brought country music artist Louise Mandrell to Sherman for a fundraiser.
Once the library was fully functional, Howe ISD Superintendent Pete Simmons suggested that they merge with the school on their newly expanded campus on Roberts Street.
“I remember Linda Wall, Marion Allison and I put together all of the shelving for that new library.” said Norman. “It’s been a great effort. Peggy Bradley was our first library director with a masters degree.”
A 1960 graduate of Bonham High School and a 1964 graduate of East Texas State University, some people may not know that Norman has an identical twin named Dean. The two sang together all the way through college where she met her husband Alton which she calls Pete.
“I met him in math class in college.” said Norman. “I thought his name was Pete. But his name is Alton. So for 51 years, to Howe and Dorchester, he’s known as Alton, but in Bonham and Sherman, he’s Pete. Every card that I’ve sent over these 51 years, I’ve had to think of who I’m sending it to. I couldn’t put Pete in his mother and daddy’s card that’s for sure.”
Jean Norman majored in home economics and then immediately began a three-year teaching stint at Sherman High School before taking 25 years off to make volunteering for the betterment of her new community of Howe. That became her full-time job and what a job she did. Later on, she went back and taught at the at-risk high school in Sherman for nine years. Her family has constantly been active members of the First Baptist Church of Howe where Alton is a deacon and she taught Sunday School for over 30 years.
The Normans were equally involved with the Howe ISD as her children Kerri, Jay, and Kelly were going through the Howe school system. Alton served on the school board for 18 years and was president for a great number of those.
“I decorated a lot of goal posts and drew all of the Bulldog run-throughs too for years.” said Norman. “I made a sign (nearly 80 ft long) while they were in a bi-district playoff that said, ‘The People of Howe Love the Bulldogs.’ I carried that to the ballgames and unrolled it down the bleachers.”
Jean Norman was also in the thick of things for Howe’s 1986 Sesquicentennial Celebration that started Founder’s Day in Howe.
Coupled with all of the community work, singing, church work, teaching and fundraising, she still found time to do book reviews for 40 years. Ironically, her first book was over Howe’s legendary lady, Mame Roberts. Roberts’ dedication to Howe went above and beyond with her beautification programs and outreaching efforts in community service. It is almost as if somewhere in that first book review forty years ago, the cornerstone ‘First Lady of Howe’ crown was passed from one leading lady to another. Being named by the Howe Chamber of Commerce – Citizen of the Year in 1992, Norman has achieved it all in this town – that is, when that old church is fully restored.
“It’ll be a relief that something that I started and tried to do is going to be successful for the whole town.” said Norman. “Something we can enjoy and look at it with pride because every time you pull out of the post office, there it is.”