LuEtta Norris

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SERVICES ARE CURRENTLY POSTPONED DUE TO THE CURRENT CORONAVIRUS SITUATION. 

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LuEtta Levina Dozier was born on March 8, 1926 in Watson, Missouri to Lester R. and Hazel M. Dozier.  After graduating high school, in about 1945, she moved to California with her girlfriends, Dorothy and Marge.  At the time they came to California, they lived with Dorothy and Marge’s mother in Walnut Creek, California.  On June 15, 1946, Lu married Thomas (Tom) Howard McClean of Concord, California.  To that union was born one son, Thomas Raymond McClean.

About a month before her son was born, her mother passed away in Missouri.  When Tommy Ray was about 6 months old, she and her husband, Tom, drove back to Missouri.  On the return trip to California, she brought three of her sisters, Twilla, Patty and Kaye, to California to raise.  Tommy Ray was then raised in a household that included three aunts.  To him, they were like his sisters and he, like an additional brother to them.  This was just the beginning of Lu’s outpouring of love!  Patty and Kaye married and left California.  Twilla, lived with her sister Lu until her death in 1999 at the age of 61. 

In 1970, Lu married William (Bill) A. Norris of Oakland, California.  They were married until his death on August 7, 2002.

Lu worked for the Pacific Telephone Company for over 30 years, 25 of which, were with “Perfect Attendance”. 

Lu had a second profession that started in the late 1970’s.  It actually started as a hobby.  She fell in love with purchasing properties, working on them and then renting them out.  That profession of Real Estate Investing soon led her to become a very friendly and much loved “landlord”. 

Shortly after her Real Estate investing began, her son Tommy married Shelley in 1979 and in January of 1983, she was presented with her first grandchild, Thomas Raymond McClean, Jr.   Almost two years later, her second grandson, Robert William McClean arrived in December of 1984 and Timothy Michael McClean, her third grandson, made his entrance in December of 1986.  In the flash of an eye, Pacific Bell and Real Estate investing became 2nd and 3rd to her new experience as a dotting grandmother.  

Lu, Meme to those three “perfect grandsons” (as she always told everyone she encountered), soon started spending much more time at her Euclid Avenue home trying her darndest to spoil those three boys!  At that, she did an A+ job! 

Meme retired from Pacific Bell in 1985 and never looked back!  She was “on the road again” between Oroville and Concord, many times with one or more of her  grandchildren in tow. 

In late 1985, her brothers Bud and Gene, with the help of her daughter-in-law, Shelley (she always referred to her as her “daughter”) and son Tom, built her a “Mountain House” about 12 miles above Lake Oroville, on property she and her son purchased in the late 1970’s.  She loved spending time in her “Mountain House” with her family, especially those three boys!  If she wasn’t downtown painting or repairing one of her rentals (on a ladder to boot!), she was putting up another 10 x 13 picture of one of the boys on her 30 foot “wall of fame” in the great room of her mountain house.

Because of an auto accident in 1978, Lu ended up having three different neck surgeries.  The last surgery, the doctor put a metal plate in her neck.  He explained to the family that if he couldn’t keep her off a ladder, at least she couldn’t do any additional damage to her neck!  

Through the years, Lu never lost her interest in Real Estate, and even passed it along to her beloved niece, Cindy Dozier Peebles, presently of Chico, California.

Lu “Meme” is survived by one Brother, Donald Paul (Jack) Dozier of Oroville, California and two sisters, Patsy Ann (Patty) Dozier Buxton of West Virginia and Wilma Darlene (Susie) Dozier Jones of Buffalo, Missouri. Her three grandsons, Thomas Raymond McClean Jr. (Karly) of Benicia, California and Robert William and Timothy Michael McClean of Concord, California.  Her great granddaughters, Peyton and Emma Wright and her great grandson Benjamin McClean. She is also survived by many beloved nieces and nephews.  

Lu was preceded in death by her son, Thomas Raymond McClean, her parents, Lester and Hazel Dozier, her brothers Alfred Eugene (Gene) Dozier, Harvey Laverne (HL) Dozier, Buddy Dean (Bud) Dozier and Arthur Leroy (Sam) Dozier, her sisters, Toddy,  Veandra Kaye (Kaye) Dozier Royse, Dixie Jo Dozier Kearns and Twilla June Dozier, her first husband, Thomas Howard (Tom) McClean and her 2nd husband, William A. (Bill) Norris, her two granddaughters, Jennifer and Jodie McClean, niece Brenda Dozier and nephew, Randall (Randy) Dozier and her best friends, Dorothy Andrews and Marjorie (Marge) Lamont.

As most of you know, Lu always had “an extra plate of food” ready for anyone that may have showed up at supper time.  She was known for her extremely large and giving heart.  She never met anyone (including her renters) that wasn’t her “new best friend” within the first few minutes. She was kind to a fault. 

LuEtta, Lu, Meme…… you will be missed by all of us who loved and looked up to you so much.  A day will not go by that we don’t see you in all the pink carnations, red roses and multi-splattered paint shirts!

Dance away in heaven and smile knowing,“You did it your way”!  

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