Hugh Stone Norton

Stone Norton was born on August 31, 1918 in Maryville, TN, the son of a hardware store manager. He was an only child; when he was 12 his parents had a second child who only lived for a few weeks.

Stone graduated from Maryville College in 1940 with a degree in chemistry and went to work at Alcoa.* A few months after graduating, on October 16, 1940, he registered for the draft.

He enlisted on May 14, 1943 and was eventually assigned to the 603^rd Engineer Camouflage Battalion. He served in Europe with the unit, and was discharged on November 19, 1945. After arriving home, he went back to work at Alcoa.

Stone married Harriet Mildred Wilson on the day after Christmas, in 1948, and the couple settled in the town of Alcoa.

Despite his chemistry degree, much of Stone’s work at Alcoa seemed to have had a more artistic bent. The 1950 census reports that he was working in the area of poster design, and a 1959 newspaper article says that he was working as a draftsman at the company. He also made art on his own time—that same 1959 article describes a series of mosaics that he displayed at the iconic Hillbilly Homecoming festival in Maryville.

He was a charter member of the Alcoa Kiwanis Club and the Green Meadow Country Club. He was also a member of the New Providence Presbyterian Church. In later years, he and Mildred moved to Louisville, TN, a few miles outside of Alcoa. He worked at Alcoa until he retired.

Stone died on April 29, 1983 and is buried at Grandview Cemetery in Maryville, TN.

* Alcoa had a huge and growing presence in Tennessee in the 1940s (in a town that eventually become named “Alcoa”). Production would increase 600% during the war, and when the company completed its North Plant in the early 1940s it was the world's largest plant under a single roof.

Sources:

1920 census

https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6061/records/80145760?tid=155540688&pid=142300867891&ssrc=pt

1930 census

https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6224/records/68454306?tid=155540688&pid=142300867891&ssrc=pt

1940 census

https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2442/records/37831628?tid=&pid=&queryId=76e44eb8-dc7d-491d-9112-6d91ef468f22&_phsrc=UpT22&_phstart=successSource

1940 draft card

https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2238/records/201637053?tid=&pid=&queryId=f0ce8dcc-19d2-4949-b62f-f5fe82d1b80b&_phsrc=UpT19&_phstart=successSource

1940 Maryville College yearbook

https://archive.org/details/chilhowean194034mary/page/56/mode/2up?q=norton

1943 enlistment record

https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/8939/records/8080188?tid=&pid=&queryId=b0fb2eee-abcd-4a83-a4b9-479660278bf7&_phsrc=UpT17&_phstart=successSource

1947 engagement announcement in The Knoxville News-Sentinel (TN)

https://www.newspapers.com/image/772953265/?match=2&terms=h.%20stone%20norton

1948 wedding announcement in The Knoxville Journal (TN)

https://www.newspapers.com/image/587785899/?match=1&terms=h.%20stone%20norton

1950 census

https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62308/records/107197094?tid=&pid=&queryId=2f309a27-aed1-482e-ac1e-5e2bf951c6ae&_phsrc=UpT27&_phstart=successSource

1959 article in The Knoxville Journal (TN) about his art

https://www.newspapers.com/image/587722592/?match=1&terms=h.%20stone%20norton

1983 VA death record

https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2441/records/12412018?tid=&pid=&queryId=79d457eb-1ed5-460c-a490-fda4b0f83b08&_phsrc=UpT24&_phstart=successSource

1983 Find a Grave record

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/207325762/hugh-stone-norton

1983 obituary in The Knoxville News-Sentinel (TN)

https://www.newspapers.com/image/774353552/?match=1&terms=h.%20stone%20norton