Norma E. Shanks

SHANKS, Norma Beck. Born August 9, 1923, in Huron, SD, passed away Sunday, December 8, 2013. Norma served during WW II as a welder on ships in California while living with her sister. She met and married her husband Donald who was a ball turret tail gunner serving in the war. After daughter Roxanne was born they moved to Cincinnati settling in Mariemont. Norma was a born caretaker. She would say, “That’s what you do.” She worked at Longview Psychiatric Hospital and Drake Hospital, loving and caring for the patients as if they were family. In the sixties she served in Mariemont under her husband Chief Shanks as a commissioned crossing guard and traffic safety on Plainville Rd. She was a loving wife, mother and grandmother, kind and selfless with a strong sense of always doing the right thing. Norma’s family gathered together on Thursday, December 12, 2013, to share the love and stories of her life. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to The Shield, 7149 Ridge Rd., Cincinnati, OH 45237. MOTHER TERESA’S ANYWAY POEM People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you’ve got anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God; It was never between you and them anyway.