Norma Duncan

A little history of Norma Duncan Norma Duncan was born February 4, 1930 in Meadow, TN. to Paul and Thelma Ledford. At the time of her death, she was 84 years old. She was the second of six children, Paul, Norma, Ruth, Verla, Sandra and Sonja. The family moved to Tabernash, CO. when Norma was about five years old and later settled in Hayden, Co. There she met and married her husband, Roy Duncan. Soon after she married Roy, they moved to Roy's home, on the Duncan Ranch in Slater, Co. where they settled and started their family with T and Royetta. They later moved to Craig, Colorado, where they settled for many years to raise their five beautiful daughters - T, Royetta, Jane, Jean, and Joyce. During this time Norma, worked as a waitress and proudly looked after her husband and girls. One of her personal accomplishments was playing on a girls' softball team for many years. She would always very proudly tell everyone that, even though her team lost the local tournament, the coach from the opposing softball team asked her to join and play on his team for the state championship. She never spoke much about the outcome of the state tournament, so her family are pretty sure they lost. Norma loved to dance. At every opportunity she and Roy would put on their dancing shoes and go to the Elks Club, in Craig, or the Dixon Club, in Dixon, Wyoming, to dance the night away. But she looked most forward to the barn dance held in Dixon. The barn dance was a yearly event hosted by one of the local ranchers before he put his hay in the barn for the winter. For many years, the rancher proudly featured a live band for the event – a band was comprised of prisoners from the Rawlins Prison. You could always count on great music - for almost all of the night - and a very good time had by all – even those who were only slightly inebriated. In the mid 60's the family moved to Denver where they happily settled to finish raising the last three of their five daughters. Norma was very proud of the fact that she was a waitress at Eddie Bohn's Pig and Whistle Restaurant. She worked there for 25 years until her retirement. Norma loved to travel. Her first big adventure was driving to Anchorage, Alaska, to visit her daughter Royetta and her husband Jon. She would tell anyone who would listen that the trip was long and hard – after all, they traveled hundreds of miles, over the unpaved AlCan highway where they suffered numerous blown tires and car repairs. But then, too, she loved visiting with her daughter and their family and taking advantage of the beautiful Alaska sights and events. She spoke about how she was a little nervous about her first boat trip – on the ocean - when the family took a day trip to Juneau to see the sights. She even got a chance to try her hand at fishing on the Russian River, in Seward. She never spoke much about the trip home, but it was probably no less eventful for her. Norma didn't especially like to fly, but when her daughter T moved to Washington, D.C., and Roy's health was failing, she decided she would just have to get on a plane to go see her and her family. After purchasing huge amounts of flight insurance, she and her husband flew to D.C. While back east, she realized another of her life-long dreams and visited Niagara Falls. She also delighted in touring the White House, even though she didn't approve of the current resident. But then – she didn't approve of most of the White House residents. After the trip, with Roy's health failing, they decided to spend as much of the rest of their lives as possible living at the cabin, an old house they remodeled several years prior, on the Duncan Ranch. The times they spent at the cabin were some of the happiest of her life. The fast-pace of the Denver big city life just wasn't her – she started out in a small town and – really – wanted to end her days in a small town. After Roy passed, and until her health began to fail, she would often spend weeks by herself at the cabin just enjoying life. But what made her truly happy was when she could talk at least a half dozen of her grandkids into spending most of their summer vacations with her at the cabin. In her later years, as her heath failed, she moved to T and Rick's home, in Littleton, CO, where her biggest passion was talking care of ""her"" dogs. She loved to putter around in the yard, and always made sure her birds and ducks were well fed as she took such joy in watching all of the critters come to the yard to visit and lunch. She also loved the family gatherings where she got to see and visit with all of her family. To hear Norma tell it, absolutely no one could – except her – properly cook a turkey, with all the associated ""fixins"". All you had to do was ask her and she would definitely let you know. Throughout her life, Norma remained very close to her siblings. They are a wonderful, crazy bunch and she always enjoyed spending time with them. Norma loved her daughters with all her heart. When she left us on February 20, 2014, peacefully, surrounded by her loving family, she was the proud matriarch of a family of about 65 – 5 daughters and their spouses, 15 grandchildren and their spouses, 25 great grandchildren and 1 great-great grandchild. Please share your memories of Norma and condolences with her family by signing the guestbook below.