Norma Noreen Marshall

Sep 13, 1934 -

Mar 13, 2022

Norma Noreen Marshall, one of the remaining Matanuska colonists, passed away on Sunday, March 13, 2022. She was able to spend her final weeks surrounded by family in her Wasilla, Alaska, residence. She was 87.

Norma was born on Sept. 13, 1934, to Paul and Margaret Nelson in Riverview, Wis. In 1935, as part of a New Deal government program during the Great Depression, the Nelsons got the opportunity to relocate to Alaska in the Matanuska Valley colony. So, at just 6 months old, Norma made the great journey north with her parents to Alaska.

The eldest of six girls in total, she grew up in Palmer, Alaska, on the Nelson dairy farm. Norma attended Palmer High School and graduated in 1952.

In 1956, she married Rick Marshall and they moved to Homer, Alaska, to start a family. The family moved to Wasilla in 1961, and built a home on Wasilla Lake and raised their three children: Pamela, Kurt and Nicole.

Norma was a business owner of the popular Discovery gift shop in the Wasilla Cottonwood Mall and several other stores throughout her life. She was a talented seamstress with a love for sewing and quilting. She had an incredible green thumb and loved "playing in the dirt" to grow countless varieties of flowers and vegetables.

Norma was loved by her family and many friends and will be missed dearly.

Norma was preceded in death by her daughter, Pamela Ann Marshall; sisters, Sylvia Wolf and Rita Colver; and parents, Paul and Margaret Nelson.

She is survived by her son, Kurt Marshall; daughter, Nicole Marshall; sisters, Ruth Bailey, Janice Swartzbacker and Pauline Standifer; grandchildren, Bethany Mitchell, Micaela Murrell, Kamio Kincaid, Sean Marshall and Kyrstin Marshall; great-grandchildren; an extended loving family; and many lifelong friends.

A service will be held in Palmer at Manna Baptist Church on May 7, 2022, at 12 p.m.