Norma Lee Sanders

Norma Lee (Plummer) Sanders was born February 13, 1930, in Shell Knob, Missouri, to John and Nila (Skinner) Plummer. She passed away, July 20, 2018, at her home in Douglas County, Missouri. She was 88 years, 5 months, and 7 days of age.

Norma grew up working on the family farm. When she was thirteen, she packed her belongings in a shoebox and moved to Branson, Missouri, to find employment. She worked as a housekeeper for a prominent business owner in Branson and then went to work at a tomato cannery in Reeds Spring, Missouri, at age fourteen. She later worked in Springfield and Joplin for a short time. At age fifteen, she headed to California with her sister and brother-in-law, Dona and Tom. There she took Spanish lessons and worked a variety of jobs.

She then moved to Kansas City and worked as a long distance operator for Southwestern Bell. She met Jay “JW” Sanders on a double date with a friend. They were married April 7, 1952, in Berryville, Arkansas, and were back to work in Kansas City the next day. During this time, she had saved enough money to buy her first car, a dark blue 1949 Ford. They also saved enough to purchase a farm in Dolph, Arkansas and moved there to raise sheep. The fence on the farm was so bad, that the sheep quickly disappeared, so they bought cows and began milking by hand.

Soon after, they opened a plumbing shop with Tom and Dona in Mountain Home, Arkansas. Tom was a master plumber. They had a successful plumbing business for several years before Norma and Jay sold the business and moved to a 525 acre farm south of Mountain Grove, Missouri. They closed this purchase the same day President Kennedy was shot, November 22, 1963. Jay and Norma brought Angus, Herford, and Charolais cattle from Arkansas and began raising them in Missouri. They pioneered the registered Charolais business in south-central Missouri. They also opened a western store business in Mountain Grove and sold clothes and tack to the community for many years.

Norma enjoyed spending time with her family, playing cards, hunting, eating morel mushrooms, picking blackberries, and fishing.

Besides her parents, Norma was preceded in death by her husband, Jay, her siblings, Virgie (Plummer) Mills, Dona (Plummer) Smiley, Barney Plummer, William Plummer, and Wilma (Plummer) Epperly, and a special nephew, Ronnie Mills.

She is survived by a special great-niece, Christiana Mahurin (Sonny), and their family, Chaseton, Devin, and Shiana, nephew, Mick Plummer (Brenda), and their family, John (Hope), Melanie, and Jason (Shawna), nephew, Rex Epperly (Judy) and their family, Greg (Lorna), and Stacey (Raymond), nephew Steve Plummer and his family, niece, Sandra Smith and her family, niece Sally Leach and her family, nephew, Russell Epperly and his family, niece Diane Hogan and her family and niece, Pat Ratliff, and other neighbors and friends who will greatly miss her energy and spirit.