Elizabeth Norton; Longtime Schoolteacher

Elizabeth Norton, a Ventura schoolteacher for 20 years and a county resident since the Great Depression, died in her sleep Wednesday following a brief illness.

She was 88.

Born on Feb. 4, 1909, in Tell City, Ind., she lived in Ventura for 66 years after coming here from Redlands as a young teacher with her new husband, Louis G. Norton.

A graduate of the University of Redlands, Norton spent a short time after her arrival here in 1931 teaching migrant workers who came to work on the county’s farms.

Soon after, she gave up teaching to raise a family, only to return to the classroom following her husband’s death in 1951.

Reading was her passion, said her daughter, Mary Jane Borrell of Ventura. “She loved to teach reading,” Borrell said, “and she was good at it.”

Over two decades, Norton taught hundreds of children at Saticoy, Mound and Juanamaria elementary schools for the Ventura Unified School District before her retirement in 1974.

She is survived by her daughter, son Frank Norton of Everett, Wash., grandsons Mark Borrell of Ventura, Jeff Borrell of Yuba City and Kevin Norton of Everett, Wash., granddaughter Heather Bird of Lynwood, Wash, and great-granddaughter Haley Borrell of Vail, Colo.

A private inurnment will be held in Ivy Lawn Memorial Park, Ventura. For service information, contact the Ventura County Church of Religious Science at 643-1933.

Funeral arrangements are under the direction of the Ted Mayr Funeral Home, Ventura.