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Highlands Today

Sebring's 'Hat Lady' Believes In Giving Back

Jasmina Meyer, Highlands Today

Beth Norman has held the title of House Manager for Highlands Little Theatre nearly 24 years. Norman said about her passion for hats, "There is one secret to wearing hats, if there's a camera around, there's someone that wants to take your picture. There's a confidence you get when you wear a hat."

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By JOE SEELIG

Highlands Today

Published: March 2, 2009

SEBRING - Cheerful, stylish, funny and dedicated are words that best describe Elizabeth Ann Norman, 83, of Sebring.

Affectionately known as Beth, a name by which her late husband Claude Norman called her, she is a woman of many names and many interests - a woman of many hats - figuratively and literally.

Her friends call her "The Hat Lady."

Norman estimated that she owns between 200 and 250 hats, many of which accompany her to shows that she puts on at nursing homes, where she serves by doing entertaining skits. She'll put on a hat and talk a little about the hat itself.

She's got hats dating back to the 1920s, she said. The veils are falling apart on some.

"In my hat skits, I looked up the history of hats and sometimes talk about that and the way women wore their hats in World War II," Norman said. "The women remember the hats they wore when they were young."

Wonderfully-Dressed Greeters

Norman has held the title of House Manager for Highlands Little Theatre nearly 24 years.

The first time her name appeared on a program as "House Manager" was in "Once Upon A Mattress" in August of 1985.

Norman believes in dressing nicely and is often seen at the theater dressed in a sequined gown or a beaded jacket.

"Beth established a standard for dress and professionalism for our house managers that has withstood the test of time," said Pete Pollard, the Highlands Little Theatre Inc., president.

In the 2007 Thakkar Awards, Norman was presented with the Beth Norman Ambassador Award for her continuing service to the theater.

Dedicated Volunteer

She is an active member of about 33 organizations, including the American Legion Auxiliary Post 25 since 1982, life member in the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs, as well as the Garden Clubs of Sebring, Lake Placid, and Ridge Garden Club, the Women of the Moose, Highlands County Audubon Society, Florida Federation of Women's Clubs, Women's Club of Sebring, to name a few.

That's just on page one of her three-page resume.

She suffers from macular degeneration and had to give up driving a few years ago.

"I have to depend always on people like my friend Mary Shivers to drag these old bones across the county so I can do the things I do," she said.

"The most precious thing people have aside from their friends and family to give is their time," she said. "And the way they construct their time in so far as giving back to the community is what's important."

She tried on a hat Tuesday, used at the Highlands Little Theatre during a performance of "Mame," and worn by Pearl Carter, now a member of the Glad Hatters organization.

It looked a little like one of her round hat boxes at first. On closer examination it was green taffeta with fake leaves and fake flowers and long green spaghetti sized strands hanging down into her face.

"I make a joke about it," she said. "I say it looks like it needs a lawn mower and that usually gets a laugh."

Actually, a hedge trimmer might be better.

"There is one secret to wearing hats - if there's a camera around - there's someone that wants to take your picture. There's a confidence you get when you wear a hat."

She has friends and family who come all the way from Mount Dora, Crystal River, Miami and Broward County, who are willing to carry her wherever she needs to go.

Five Generation Floridian

Norman was born in 1925, in Miami, to Annie Lee Thomas Ellis and John Whittington Ellis. Hers was one of the pioneer families that helped settle in Florida. Her family goes back five generations in Florida.

Her granddad, Dr. Joshua R. Ellis, performed the first appendectomy in the state of Florida, she said.

"It was on a politician," she said with a sly grin. "People said, 'You'd better be careful' and others said, 'Hey, it's OK if your knife slips.'"

She and her late husband knew each other as friends back in Miami for about four years before they got married.

"We were at a party and we both went to different high schools, but he kept showing up where I was," she said. "I was 14 and he was 16, but he behaved like he was more mature, much like me."

She and Claude would go with a group of people to juke joints.

"He did not dance, but I did every chance I got," she said. "After we got married (in 1941) he was in the Navy; and because he didn't dance he would say to his fellow sailors, 'Would you like to dance with my wife - one time.' But he'd sing to me. He was a crooner."

Claude Norman served in World War II and Korea, before he went to work for Eastern Airlines. They bought a little home in Hialeah.

They had two daughters, Claudia Baldwin, who lives in Inglis, and Faustina Mead, who lives in Broward County. She has three grandsons, Thomas Hyle, Russell Mead and Curtis Mead and a granddaughter, Justine Maver, and five grandchildren.

In 1975 they built a home in Lake Placid. They came up on weekends.

He went through World War II and Korea with just some broken fingers, she said. But while still living in Hialeah, a young neighbor was backing out from his home and pinned him against a car.

Over the years he suffered vascular scarring due to the accident and first lost one leg and later the other, just a day before he died.

Busy Giving

Norman said she will continue to keep busy and plans a hat show at The Groves, in Sebring, sometime early this month.

She said she gets more out of what she does than what she can ever give.

"When you see these older ladies and gentlemen in these nursing and retirement homes, I believe the thoughts I stir up in them causes them to reach over and touch someone," she said, gently stroking her own arm.

Highlands Today reporter Joe Seelig can be reached at 863-386-5834 or jseelig@highlandstoday.com

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