Madelon Norbury McDonald's Obituary
Madelon Norbury McDonald
An Officer’s Wife (1930-2025)
Madelon Norbury McDonald, who died March 2, 2025 at age 94, lived more than half a century in Annapolis, MD and Washington, DC and moved around the world as the United States Navy directed for the 25 years before that. Yet as she wrote in her memoirs, her early years remained imprinted: I am from Little Rock and will always feel like an Arkansan, even though I lived many, many more years elsewhere; I’m from the Great Depression but never felt deprived; I’m from books, reading and libraries; I’m from meeting my father at the corner as he returned home from work and riding on his car’s running board the half block to our house; I am from having the best-ever maternal grandparents, I still think of them often; I am from taking long walks with my grandfather; I am from a family that prized good grammar, refined manners and punctilious behavior; I am from having my parents’ divorce affect me for the rest of my life; I am from having three wonderful children who have never let me down; I am from having six equally ideal grandchildren and four [now 12] great grandchildren; I am from having been married for 67 years to a wonderful, selfless man; I am from feeling very lonely since my husband died and now see my life in black-and-white as opposed to the technicolor I lived with him.
She treasured all she had witnessed:
When I saw the Grand Canyon, at age eight, I couldn’t believe my eyes; When I saw the ocean for the first time, at age nine, I was amazed; When I heard, at age eleven, that my parents were separating I was incredibly sad and mourned for the family we had been; When I was nineteen I married a young ensign fresh out of the Naval Academy and was incredibly happy; When I was twenty-two my first child was born and I was ecstatic to be a mother; When my grandchildren were born I hoped they would adore me the way I adored my grandparents; When my great-grandchildren were born I felt incredibly lucky to live long enough to know them. Madelon Norbury, born April 6, 1930 in Little Rock, Arkansas, was the daughter of Roberta Campbell, a journalist, and Joseph Bradford Norbury, an attorney. Her paternal grandfather, Tom W. Campbell, was the author of Arkansas Lawyer and two other books. After graduating from Mount St. Mary Academy in Little Rock in 1947, Madelon took the bold step of heading north to Washington, DC, to live in a boarding house near Dupont Circle and work as a clerk typist for the War Department. One evening not too long after she arrived in Washington, she went with friends to an evening out at the Hi Hat, a nightclub in the Ambassador Hotel, where she made eye contact with a USNA midshipman in uniform. In short order, the midshipman became Madelon’s lifelong partner and love, her husband of 67 years, Ewing Raiford “Mickey” McDonald Jr. Married in 1950, Madelon spent the next 25 years serving as a Navy wife, making her family’s home wherever the Navy sent them. Her favorite duty station was the Holy Loch in Dunoon, her own Brigadoon that made her always light up remembering the “two years in Scotland [that] were the happiest years of my life.” She and Mickey raised their three children primarily in Washington, DC where Madelon’s commitment to books, education, and equal rights led her to spend considerable time volunteering as a librarian at Hearst, Stevens, and Sacred Heart Elementary Schools as well as contributing her organizational and administrative skills to In The Swim and as the Red Cross representative to the Committee for Lead Elimination Action in DC (LEAD), a consortium of 35 agencies coordinated by Children's Hospital. She delighted in her time working at the National Cathedral’s Herb Cottage and its London Brass Rubbing Centre. In 1981 Madelon and Mickey returned to Annapolis – first moving to Greenbury Point and then to Heritage Harbor – and spent the next four decades volunteering and being a friend throughout the town, with Historic Annapolis, the USNA Class of 1949, and dearest to her heart, many years as the Naval Academy Primary School librarian. In 2017, Madelon sat by Mickey’s bed as he set sail on his final voyage. For the first time in 67 years, Madelon moved by herself, becoming a charter member at BrightView Senior Living Annapolis, when it opened in 2018. In her later years, she missed not only her beloved Mickey but her cousin Babs and her brother Joe as well. Madelon left this world quietly, the way she arrived and the way she lived, on March 2, 2025. Her family wishes to extend deepest appreciation to the nurturing, professional staff of BrightView Senior Living Annapolis and of Hospice of the Chesapeake. Madelon leaves behind a host of family members who aspire to meet her expectations of proper grammar, manners, and behavior, including three children – Devon Ross McDonald Clouse (Paul); Bradford Norbury McDonald (Kim); and Sheila Campbell McDonald (Bennett Finney); six grandchildren – Tyler Bradford McDonald (Mary), Holly McDonald Clouse Coutoumas (John), Mallory Rebecca Gill (Tommy Vu), Luke Anderson McDonald (Rose), Austin Paul Clouse (Laura), and Natalie Rose Gill; and twelve great-grandchildren (do they come cheaper by the dozen, she would say) – Ava, Colin, Ewing, Bailey, Richard, Ruby Lucille, Carter, Dora Grace, Quinn, Lucy Anne, Brady, and her namesake, Do Quyen Madelon; and her cherished niece and nephew, Julie and Andrew.
What’s your fondest memory of Madelon?
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