Mary Norton, longtime Reynolds rally volunteer, dies at age 84

By Calvin Hall

The Gresham Outlook, Nov 7, 2009 (2 Reader comments)

Mary Elizabeth Norton

Outlook file photo

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When Mary Elizabeth Norton first retired as adviser to Reynolds High School’s rally squad in 1985 at age 60, The Outlook had dubbed the grandmother Reynolds’ oldest cheerleader.

But instead of quietly retiring, Mary picked up her pompoms and returned to lead the rally squad just a few years later, resuming her role not only as the “Energizer grandma” but as a friend, mentor and second mother to numerous students on and off the field.

Mary, a longtime East County resident, died Sunday, Nov. 1, in Gresham. She was 84.

She will be remembered at a public memorial service at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 8, at Wood Village Baptist Church, 23601 W. Arata Road. Interment will be at Willamette National Cemetery in Portland. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to the Reynolds High School Scholarship Fund in her name.

For more than 35 years and with just a small stipend, Mary served as choreographer and adviser for numerous dance teams, flag teams and rally girls who passed through the Reynolds district. The white-haired lady, with her aging boom box and a megaphone that could get “the Gresham football team (to come) to attention,” would kick up her orthopedic shoes and lead her students with dance routines she created herself.

She led her students to athletic fields, special events, parades, conferences and other gatherings. She traveled with the flags in her tiny car, fretted about costumes and even marched alongside her students in the Rose Festival Parade. In later years, she would march in the parade for as long as she could manage, and then drop out and ride the MAX home.

“I think her most alive moments were when she was with those kids,” says her daughter, Susan Howard.

Mary’s husband, Cal Norton, said that she had the only four-and-one-half-hour job that lasted 10 hours a day.

Mary was born July 1, 1925, in Seattle to Lloyd and Elsie (Asher) Thompson. She was raised in Portland for most of her youth and attended Lincoln High School, where she became one of the first female cheerleaders in the male-dominated activity. School officials at the time were concerned about the girls’ skirts flying up during cheers, so Mary had to be fitted with special undergarments.

Mary’s parents divorced when she was in high school, and as an only child, she felt a strong sense of loneliness. Howard says her mother “swore after that that she wouldn’t let that feeling of loneliness happen to anyone else.”

Mary danced for the troops in Canada during World War II and taught tap dancing. In 1946, she married Calvin “Cal” E. Norton. They resided on Northeast 146th Avenue and Broadway for more than 48 years in a house that Cal built for them.

Mary’s career began when she walked onto the athletic field to help the daughter of a friend with a dance routine. The rest is history, they say, as Mary had found an ideal place for her show business and dance skills. She also took a part-time job at Reynolds High, first in the student store and then as an assistant librarian.

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