Marie Brodeur

Marie Norma Brodeur, 94, passed away on May 19, 2021. Born on August 27, 1926 in Fall River, MA, she was a certified member of the greatest generation.

Norma was eight when her family moved to Lehighton, PA.  While attending high school in 1944, she penned an essay entitled For This We Fight, winning a statewide competition and a four-year scholarship to Temple University.  She was graduated in 1948 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Commerce.

After graduating college, she accepted a position with Sears Roebuck in Boston, MA, and became the company’s first woman appointed to management.  While in Boston she met and married her husband, Harold Hills Brodeur, Jr.  In 1952 they settled in northern Virginia.

After raising four children, Norma revived her professional career, serving 15 years as executive secretary for the Vice President of Programming at National Public Radio.  She was an active leader in Girl Scouts and the Catholic Charismatic Renewal that swept northern Virginia in the 1980s.  After retiring to Florida in 1991, she served with her husband in Engaged Encounter and Cursillo.  Favorite pastimes were swing dancing, square dancing, swimming, sunbathing, reading and sailing.  She loved to laugh, play games, sing, and be serenaded by her progeny in four-part harmony.  She was a devoted wife for almost six decades, and a loving mentor to her children.  Her most heartfelt nightly prayer was that her children would develop all the gifts God had given them.

Norma is survived by her daughters Anne Sommers (Gale) of Falls Church, VA, and Jeanne Holowicki (Anthony) of Atlantic Beach, FL; sons Thomas (Patti) of Atlantic Beach, FL and James (Estelle) of Richmond, VA; grandchildren Lauren, Megan Cossitt (Nick), Kristin Yednock (Stephen), Michelle Herbst (Zach), Emma and Sam Brodeur; great grandsons Rene Cossitt and Ernesto Vicente Arroyo Brodeur.

A memorial service will be scheduled for a later date at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, 2400 Mayport Rd., Atlantic Beach.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Northeast Florida Community Hospice.