Mary Rhodes

Norma Sheehy Rhodes passed away Wednesday, April 6, 2016 at St. Catherine Center in Waco, Texas. Visitation will be 9-10 a.m., Tuesday, April 12, followed by a mass at 10 a.m., both at the OakCrest Funeral Home, 4520 Bosque Boulevard. Burial will follow at Holy Cross Cemetery in Waco.

Norma arrived in Waco at the age of two with her parents, John and Herma Sheehy. She excelled academically being double promoted twice and graduating simultaneously from Waco High School and the Fowlkes-Han School of Expression at the age of 15. After attending Arlington Hall in Washington D. C. she returned to complete her education at the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a member of the Pierian Literary Society, Newman Club, Cap and Gown council, NUTTS society Curtain club, Delta Delta Delta sorority and was their state rush captain her Senior year. She was twice a Bluebonnet Bell nominee and was elected permanent Treasurer of her Senior Class. After graduating cum laude with a BFA in 1941 she returned to Waco to help her Mother doing charitable work. She was presented by the Hedonia Club in 1941. She married in June 1942 to Charles W. Rhodes, Jr. who was a flight Instructor at Sherman AFB. She became a war widow a year later when he was killed in action.

While working on her Master's degree at Baylor University Norma became involved in civic and charitable work. During the rest of the war she was involved with the Waco Service League supporting the two airbases in Waco. She was involved with starting the Junior League of Waco and the Waco Civic Theater and personally obtained the funding for their current building, and over the next 70 years worked with other organizations as The Woman's Club of Waco, McCulloch House, Historic Waco Foundation, Waco Cotton Palace, Baylor University Strecker Board, Providence Hospital, and the Waco Foundation.
She was the Treasurer for Braswell-Davis and Associates for 40 years before opening her gift shop, The Rhodes Gallery, in 1989.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Charles Wesley Rhodes, Jr.; her parents, John and Herma Sheehy; and her brother, James Robert Sheehy.

She is survived by her brother, John Sheehy, Jr.; her sister, Joanne Hoover; her son, Charles (Sandy) Rhodes; grandson, Charles (Rocky) Rhodes; granddaughters, Susan Bahry, Anne Tucker, and Mary Rohmiller; six great-grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews.

Memorials may be made to the charity of your choice.