Lola J Norwood

Lola Jean Thompson Norwood was born on March 28, 1950, in Pineville, Louisiana to Arles and Lillie Mae Thompson. She went home to be with her Lord and Savior in Shreveport, Louisiana on September 1, 2023.

She is survived by her husband, Donald (Don), her son, Greg, her brother, Pete Thompson of Bryson City, North Carolina, her two sisters, Sandy Thompson of Ball, Louisiana, and Joan Holmes and husband Jimmy Holmes, seven nieces and nephews and several great nieces and nephews, lots of cousins, and Charla Streetman, a very special friend who called Lola her Little Sister and Lola called Charla her Big Sister. They formed a bond that words cannot adequately describe.

Lola is preceded in death by her parents, her sister, Kim, her grandparents, and aunts and uncles. She is also preceded in death by Ross and Hazel Norwood, her in-laws who thought of her as a daughter.

Lola graduated from Tioga High School, attended Northwestern State University until she met Don, and later on after settling down in Alexandria, Louisiana, she attended Louisiana College. She would jokingly say that she got her MRS and when Don graduated, he got a Bachelor of Science degree or what is commonly called a BS degree. Both seemed appropriate! She and Don were married on January 24, 1970, immediately after he graduated from Northwestern. Five years later she gave birth to their son, Greg, who brought much joy to their lives.

She was one of the most kindhearted people that anyone could know and easily adapted to whatever she needed to do. Whether it was sitting with someone who was ill, cooking for a function, taking someone to a doctor, and just being the person who would do whatever was needed to do. Even before she and Don were married, she sat with his grandparents while they were in the hospital. As their parents grew old and their health failed, she dedicated her life to caring for them regardless of what the need was. She never stopped worrying about her brother, sisters, and parents. She wanted all to be healthy and to lead good lives.

When she married into the Norwood family, she fit right in doing whatever that family was doing. That was sometimes doing such things as operating a tractor, getting her hands dirty in the garden dirt, fishing, and many other things. Bushhogging was one of her favorite farm activities. About the only thing that she did not do was to hunt. She loved working in a garden, working in the yard, fishing, traveling, cooking, and being a dedicated wife, mother, daughter, and daughter-in-law.

Lola loved God and even as she was being taken from the room for surgery, she commented that if she didn't make it through the surgery that she was going home to be with God and our families and friends who have gone on before us. As Don said, as hard as it is to give up the love of your life, there is comfort in knowing that she is with God and all of those mentioned. She will be missed for her smiles, compassion, dedication, and determination to get a task done, and for just being Lola. She was one in a million.

Honoring Lola as pallbearers will be Mark Griffin, Jason Holmes, Steve Palmerton, Lee Rainwater, Phillip Daniels, and Scott Gentry.

Funeral services celebrating the life of Lola J. Norwood will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, September 6, 2023, at Kilpatrick’s Rose-Neath Chapel, 943 Polk Street, Mansfield, Louisiana. Interment will follow at Old Union Cemetery, Converse, Louisiana. Officiating the service will be Dr. Chad Hardbarger. Visitation will be held on Tuesday, September 5, 2023, from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. at Kilpatrick’s Rose-Neath Funeral Home, Mansfield, Louisiana.

The family requests that memorials be sent to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, P.O. Box 50, Memphis, TN 38101-9929.