Tales Tombstones Tell 2025 - Elizabeth “Lizzie” Fenwick Norris
36th Annual Tales Tombstones Tell Self - Guided Tour
Step back in time with us for the 36th annual Tales Tombstones Tell — a beloved community tradition that brings local history to life, one gravestone at a time.
Each video in this series features a stop from our Oakwood Cemetery walk, sharing the stories of the people, families, and events that helped shape our town’s past. Whether you’re exploring for the first time or revisiting an old favorite, these tales reveal the humanity, humor, and heart found among the stones.
Elizabeth “Lizzie” Fenwick Norris (1860–1889) was a Scottish immigrant and devoted wife whose family name remains central to West Chicago’s history. Together with her husband Albert Norris, she helped build the foundation for the Norris-Seeger Funeral Home and Norris Avenue.
Interpreted by: Carol
Hello, and welcome. My name is Elizabeth Fenwick Norris, but most everyone just calls me Lizzie.
I was born in Scotland, the daughter of a blacksmith, and I moved to Turner with my family. My life was much simpler back then, though it wasn’t always easy. My father worked very hard — as did we all — but it was a good life.
In the summer of 1881, I met Albert Norris.
He was a brakeman with the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad — tall, kind-eyed, with a quiet strength about him. Not much for words, but when he spoke, he listened.
He wasn’t like his father and brothers, who worked in their family furniture store and also undertook funerals in town.
No, Albert loved the open rails rather than being indoors.
We married that September and made our home here in Turner.
Over the next several years, we welcomed three daughters — Augusta, Marjorie, and little Carrie, who was named for Albert’s dear mother.
Oh, those were joyous years — busy, but full of love and laughter. We didn’t have much, but we had each other.
My time was short. In October of 1889, I fell ill.
No one could quite say what took me — perhaps a fever, perhaps something more — but I slipped away when I was just 29 years old.
It was a sad reality in those days, when we didn’t have the modern medicine you have today.
After I passed, little Carrie — she was just a wee bairn at the time — went to live with my sister in Idaho.
The older girls stayed here in Turner with Albert’s brother John and his wife.
They were good folk, and I’m thankful for them.
In time, Albert remarried — a widow from Spring Valley named Ida Ellington.
He tried to make a fresh start, but life had other plans.
He took ill with sepsis, a fast-moving infection, and passed away just after Christmas in 1899, at 42 years old — another soul gone too soon.
His funeral was held at the Methodist Church in Spring Valley, and people turned out in numbers. Railroad men, Masons, Woodsmen — all friends and colleagues came to honor him.
As for our daughters — Augusta and Marjorie grew into fine women.
They married local men and lived their lives in West Chicago.
Carrie remained out west and built her life in Nebraska.
Today, the Norris-Seeger Funeral Home in West Chicago still bears the Norris family name — founded by Albert’s brothers.
The family furniture store and the original funeral home location still stand at 112 Main Street.
And if you wander a little off West Washington Street here in West Chicago, you may come across Norris Avenue — a wee street, perhaps, but a lasting mark named for our family.
It’s a reminder that we were here.
Thank you for remembering us.
