Norma Jean Bishop

Norma Jean Bishop 90, passed away on Sunday, November 4, 2018, after a long and courageous battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Norma was born to Andrew and Helen (Gibson) Nulph on November 20, 1927 in Newton, KS. She was one of 12 children, raised primarily in rural Kansas during the depression and graduated in 1945 from Sedgwick High School. She then moved to Wichita to complete secretarial school and worked in the office of Woolf Brothers Department Store, where through a work friend, Rubie (Bishop) O’Connor, she met her future husband Freeman Bishop. They married on October 12, 1947. She began working in the administrative offices at Boeing Aircraft where she served on the grass roots committee of the Good Neighbor Fund which is still active today. Norma left Boeing in 1953 to start and raise her family. Her most cherished role was that of a mother and grandmother. She and Freeman had four children: Jennifer Ann, Michael Allen, Brian Andrew, and Penny Sue. The Bishops were a busy and very active family and Norma was a Cub Scout Den Mother and a Girl Scout Leader. She supported and was a devoted fan of her sons’ sporting events and her daughters’ musical and vocal performances. Norma was very active in supporting her husband’s career and helped organize company picnics and frequently entertained at home. In 1969 she returned to work as a temp, then in the 1970s went to work full time as secretary to the Dean at Cowley College in Ark City, to where she had moved with her family. As fate would later have it, she met a friend who was starting the Cowley County Area Agency on Aging and needed an assistant director. She immediately jumped on board. As she developed and learned the skills of working with grants and government funding, she decided to go back to college. She completed her Associates degree from Cowley College in 1980, then continued on to earn her bachelor’s degree in Gerontology from Wichita State University while working full time and commuting to Wichita. At age 60, she was recognized with the ‘Oldest Graduate’ award in the ’87-’88 graduating class along with the distinction of Cum Laude. Shortly thereafter she initiated a local chapter of the Older Women’s League and continued working for the Area Agency on Aging until she retired in 1997 at age 70. Norma was an avid sports fan who loved the Green Bay Packers and the Atlanta Braves, and loved watching and following USTA tennis. She was an avid reader who always had at least 2 or 3 books with her and had an impressive home library. She loved her crossword puzzles, solitaire, and late-night movies. She was always ready to go and do, especially when it involved her grandchildren’s sports, or a trip to Atlanta to visit her oldest son and daughter-in-law to either catch a Braves game or take a side trip to Savannah. She loved gathering with extended family for any occasion, most especially the holidays and summer vacations. Her laugh, her smile, her internal strength and drive, and her no-nonsense approach to life are the things for which she was loved and will always be remembered. She is preceded in death by her parents, 8 siblings, husband Freeman of 44 years, daughter Jennifer, son Michael, and grandson Clifton Wayne Bishop. She is survived by her sisters Joy Kay, Linda and Rita; daughter-in-law Shirl Bishop of Wilmington, NC, children Brian (Janet) Bishop of Towanda, KS, Penny (Steve) Radke of Wichita; grandchildren Tracie Kim Thiele of Ponca City, OK, Jacqueline Shea Bishop of Wichita, Clayton (Marcia) Andrew Bishop of Udall, KS, and Mya Katherine Radke of Wichita, great-grandchildren Lauren, Myles, Alex, Dustin, Autumn, J.D., Gracie, and Hunter, 4 great-great-grandchildren, and many loving nieces and nephews. Visitation with the family will be from 6:00 – 8:00 pm, Thursday, November 8, 2018, at Downing & Lahey East Mortuary, 6555 E. Central, Wichita. Funeral Service will be at 11:00 am, Friday, November 9, 2018, at First United Methodist Church, 330 N. Broadway, Wichita, with burial at 1:30 pm at White Chapel Memorial Gardens, Wichita.