Donna Norris

Donna Tuttle Norris, 61, died August 1, 2020 at Druid City Hospital in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. A visitation will be held at Magnolia Chapel North on August 7th, 2020 from 10 am -11am. Graveside service will be at Nazareth Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery at 11:30 am.

Donna is survived by her husband of 23 years Kevin Norris, beloved and only daughter Marie Elise Norris, her brother and sister David Tuttle and Patricia Archibeque, and fur babies Grayson & other kitties.

Donna Tuttle Norris, was born Donna Ceil Tuttle, a play on words so she could be named after both her father, USAF Major Donald and her mother, Lucille Tuttle. The youngest of 3 siblings, (she is survived by older sister Patricia Archibeque and brother David Tuttle.)

She was born August 16th, 1958 in Huntsville, AL. Born into an Air Force family allowed her to live in Alabama, Italy, California, and New York, before settling in Glendale, Arizona at the age of seven. She obtained college degrees from Glendale Community College, Grand Canyon College, and Shelton Community College (where she made the president’s list). One of the highlights of her time at Grand Canyon College was a trip to Costa Rica and Hawaii. Donna returned to California for a year and lived with her brother and his young boys. She enjoyed that time so much and her love of the beach such that when she met her love of her life Kevin Norris and they were getting married, they returned to California to marry on the seaside cliffs of La Jolla. After that Donna and Kevin left on their journey as nationwide truck drivers and started a family which they were blessed with their only and beloved daughter Marie Elise Norris born Sept 10th, 1998. Donna loved a lot of things. I don’t know what the favorite was, but you could tell from the multiple jokes she would share with family and friends on social media. She really loved quilting and knitting which she learned from her mom. She always posted about her monthly quilt guild meetings and how she looked forward to them. Her favorite quilting joke was, “Quilting is the answer, I don’t care what the question is!” Donna really enjoyed water and she talked about how the Tuttle’s have to love water. She posted a lot of memes of “currently pretending I am at the beach”, updated family on Marie swimming sessions, how she could not wait for the community pool by them to open for the season. Her kitchen and clothes had nautical themes and wherever a family member travelled to a tropical place, she wanted a nautical themed t-shirt. She also collected sand from the places she visited and asked family to do the same. Donna could cook up a storm and she was very generous in sharing recipes. During Thanksgiving she would, without fail, share the size of the turkey they bought, how she made her own cornbread stuffing because the store bought ones did not meet her standards, and ask her sister, brother and nephews about the size of the turkey they bought and what sides are going with it. Her favorite line after sharing recipes was, “I think it tastes really good if I do say so myself”. She loved food and (I think we all do) but she really loathed bell peppers. Donna was the self-declared “grammar police”. Even when she was in the hospital and we were chatting with her, we would not fail to hear about “stupid autocorrect” followed by “Autocorrect has become my worst enema” when the phone changed her words. Her favorite quote was “My life is a constant battle between wanting to correct grammar and wanting to have friends”. This is true because a few times, it got her going back and forth with friends on FB where she held her ground. We love Donna and we will all miss her sense of humor, her smile, and her love of family. You have fought a good fight, you have finished the race, and kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:7). God be with you till we meet again.