A memorial service was held Sept. 27, 2023 for Norma Faye Dyer, (née Smith). She died at her home in Silverton, Oregon on Oct. 17, 2019. She was 88.
The daughter of Norman and May Smith, she was born in Washington State on April 9, 1931 at the height of the Great Depression. She grew up in Portland, Oregon, graduating from high school in 1948. Her parents did not support her dream of a college education for women despite her having received a scholarship.
On Oct. 18, 1952, Norma married Thomas Clayton Dyer (1927-2002), and settled in her husband’s hometown of Spokane, Washington, producing a family of four children born within five calendar years.
In her 30s she achieved her dream of attending college. She graduated with highest honors from Eastern Washington College in 1971, followed by a Master’s Degree in Guidance and Counseling from Gonzaga University in 1973. Norma moved back to her beloved Oregon in the 1980s. She purchased a home in Silverton and was grateful to live there for the remainder of her life.
Norma worked to support counseling venues such as suicide hot lines, and half-way homes, and worked both at the Mount Angel Abbey and for the priests at St. Mary Catholic Church.
She loved her children and supported their creative and educational goals; she was a good listener; she enjoyed cooking, music and musical theater, gardening, flowers, reading, painting, spent treasured time at the Oregon Coast, was intellectually curious, and very smart.
During the illness that claimed her life, her children and their spouses supported her in her changing needs, enabling her to remain in her home until the end.
Norma is survived by four children and their families: son, Theodore (Darlene) Dyer; daughters Pamela (Michael) Barainca, Christine (Thomas) Carlisle, and Rebecca (Richard) Long; as well as grandchildren Rachael (Colby) Glenn, Alisa (Matthew) Bozin, and Ahna, Sonia and Micah (Diane) Hendrix; great grandchildren Paxton and Orly Glenn, Tyler and Olivia Bozin, and MJ and Chase Hendrix. Survivors include her brother-in-law, Lawrence McArther, husband of her half-sister, Lou.
