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Post #170824 by RevBambooBen on Sun, Jul 10, 2005 2:15 AM
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EMAIL ARTICLE LINK TO ARTICLE PRINT ARTICLE Article Last Updated: Thursday, June 09, 2005 - 7:55:29 AM PST Flo Ann Hedley Norvell When Flo Ann Hedley Norvell died on May 27, 2005 her family and friends got a great shock. Healthy all her life, she had never taken as much as an aspirin. Always there for the people who needed her, she was suddenly gone. Artist, activist and teacher, Flo Ann was born in Shawnee, Okla., on Oct. 22, 1928, the first of four daughters born to Eli and Malcolm Hedley. Later, the family moved to Seminole, Okla., an oil boomtown, where Eli opened a grocery store. By 1938 when Flo Ann was 10, the oil was pumped out and Seminole was part of the Dust Bowl. The wind was blowing the topsoil away, and the grocery store had seen better days. OTHER ARTICLES IN THIS SECTION
The Hedleys went west in an old Ford with a mattress on top, like so many other families from Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma. They went as far as they could, to the beach in Palos Verdes, Calif. There they leased an abandoned part of the Royal Palms Country Club from Seor Sepulveda. It had a flagstone dance floor ringed with huge palm trees and large stone fireplaces built into the cliffs facing the ocean. They built a house out of driftwood and called their new home The Cove. At that time, in the 40s, all kinds of useful stuff washed up on the beach. There were parts of boats, giant uprooted redwoods from up north, glass fishing floats and nets from Japan. Soon the whole family was beachcombing. Eli Hedley was inventive, and FloAnn, being the oldest, was soon helping him make all kinds of interesting creations from things they found on the beach. They sold what they made in Hollywood department stores, and this trade soon evolved into a Polynesian-theme decorating business that Flo Ann helped with until her fathers retirement in 1974. Flo Ann Hedley and Russel Norvell met in kindergarten in Seminole. Twenty years later, on Feb. 12, 1953, they were married on the Coast, down at The Cove. Flo and Rusty moved to Japan. Their son, Cove, was born there while Rusty was in the Navy. Surrounded by the beauty of the country and the work of its artists, Flo Ann took it all in, absorbing the graceful Japanese interpretation of beauty. After Japan, the Norvells came back to California, where Flo Ann started teaching. They moved to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico and lived there awhile. They lived in London and Cadaques, Spain. In Spain Flo focused on oil painting and did some of her best work. Back in the states, she taught art and English when they lived in Manhattan, Connecticut, Tennessee and New Jersey. Flo and Rusty came to back to California in 1979, this time to the Mendocino coast. They lived in a tent first, then in a trailer and finally in an honest-to-god house that Cove built. From her Mendocino home Flo Ann launched a series of art shows, including a 99-piece show at the Unitarian Church in San Francisco. She also published a childrens book, The Great Big Box Book. But the driving force of her life on the coast shifted toward citizen activism. She was determined to help protect the ocean and the environment. When the Department of the Interior wanted to allow drilling for oil off the Mendocino coast, she believed that this would lead to pollution and eventually a major spill. She helped found Ocean Sanctuary to block the plans of the government and the oil industry. Later she realized a more national approach was needed, so she joined the Sierra Club. With Sierra Club members she launched several projects to protect the coastal environment. She created posters and flyers and ran letter-writing campaigns to government officials. She collected signatures for petitions, designed mass mailings and used her charm and some arm-twisting to get things done. Many will remember getting her unique Christmas cards. These were drawn with a spare and joyful pen and ink line with a some clever collage material and were always humorous. Flo Ann was a member of the Christian Science Church in Fort Bragg were she was a clerk, reader and usher. She will also be remembered by her many friends there as a dynamic Sunday school teacher. She was always cheerful, and she had a generous spirit. Many people here have occupied themselves with cherishing the world around them, and Flos work will be taken up by someone else, but the unique attributes she brought to her world are gone with her and wont be seen again. Flo Ann Hedley Norvell is survived by her husband Russel Norvell; son and daughter in-law, Cove Norvell and Lorraine Ardaiz; granddaughter, Elizabeth Norvell and grandson, Christian Jaggli. She is survived by her three sisters: Marilyn Gozzano, Bungy Hartshorn and Charlotte Ba Hedley, cousin Billie Lou McCune, many nieces and nephews (11), brothers-in-law Phil Norvell, Bill Norvell, sisters-in-law Sheila Turner and Norma Norvell. There will be a celebration of Flo Anns life at the Abalone room of the Little River Inn Sunday, June 12 at 2 p.m. RETURN TO TOPA little slice of history goes to the pie in the sky. We'll miss the crap out of you Flo. Love- the Boo's Classifieds | News | Local | Obituaries | Sports Mendocino Beacon Privacy Policy | Subscribe | Contact Us |