Norma Emily Cowell

Norma Emily Cowell was the only child of Elsie Margaret Harrington and Otis Marion Cowell. She was born 14 November 1909, five years into the marriage of her parents. She lived the whole of her life, from birth to adulthood to old age and death, as a Manteca gal. Though this website celebrates her descent from her great-grandparents John Sevier Branson and Martha Jane Ousley, Norma was undoubtedly more aware of her father’s lineage. Her grandfather Joshua Cowell is known as the Father of Manteca for his role as a founder and early major landowner. Otis was Joshua’s only son. Manteca was, one could say, in Norma’s blood.

Elsie’s marriage to Otis, along with the marriage of her sister Eunice to Winfred Converse, another scion of Manteca pioneers, ensured a long-term presence of the Branson clan in the immediate area that is still, to an extent, in effect today. During the span from 1900 to 1915, Manteca and the surrounding farmland would become home not only to those two couples, but to Elsie and Eunice’s mother Nancy Anne Branson Napier and her husband “Babe” Napier, and to sister Irene Harrington and her husband Claude Salmon. They were joined by Alice Branson Williams Henry, daughter of Thomas Branson, and by Clarence Johnson, son of Nancy’s sister Mary Jane Branson. Clarence’s presence in turn drew his foster parents, Theresa Branson Moore and Will Moore. The women relatives were often involved in social and community functions. Norma grew up in the midst of this milieu. When she reached adulthood she, along with her first cousin Josephine Converse Bianchi (Eunice’s only daughter), shouldered the responsibility of continuing these activities as the older generations grew less able to do so. Among other expressions of these bonds, Norma was part of Phoebe Hearst Parlor #214, the local lodge of the Native Daughters, and served as an officer.

Shown at right is Norma in 1926 at Manteca High School, posing with her first cousin and classmate Josephine Agnes Converse. Both girls were sixteen at the time.

On 1 July 1927, at seventeen, Norma wed Theron Ormal Hodson, son of Frank Hodson and Mary Hubbard. He had been born 20 October 1903 in Cottage Grove, Lane County, OR. His parents had divorced when he was a child. After the split, the boy and his mother moved in with her mother, Lizzie Hubbard, in Hermiston, Umatilla County, after which Mary had earned money as a housekeeper and cook in private homes and small boarding facilities. At some point in the 1910s she had decided she wanted a bigger change of venue, and left Oregon in favor of Modesto, Stanislaus County, CA. As a consequence, Theron had spent his teens in the San Joaquin Valley.

Following the example of her parents, Norma and Theron did not have a child until five years into the marriage, and then had only one. Theron worked as an electrical lineman. He, too, participated in Manteca social club activities, though in his case it was with the male counterpart, the local Masonic lodge.

By the 1960s many of the Manteca clan had either died off, or grown up and moved away. Norma and her son and Josephine Bianchi and a few others remained lifelong. (The photo at the upper left was taken in 1956, when Norma was in her mid-forties.) Norma passed away 22 November 1989, having just reached eighty years of age. Theron survived her. He passed away 26 June 1998 in Manteca. Both husband and wife were interred at East Union Cemetery of Manteca, which is where the graves of Norma’s parents are also located.

Child of Norma Emily Cowell with Theron Ormal Hodson

To go back one generation, click here. To return to the Branson/Ousley Family main page, click here.