Norman Selby "Lawsie" Lawson
T/3 in 23rd Headquarters Co
Military occupational specialty: 502 (administrative NCO)
ASN#20264482
Born 1917 in DE, Died 1967
County of residence at enlistment: Sussex County, DE
Other residence(s): Milton, DE
United States Army, European Theatre of Operations
Occupation before the war: clerks, general office
Norman Lawson was born on May 10, 1917 in Millsboro, DE, the oldest of five children; his father was a carpenter, working in construction, and his family had roots in Delaware going back to the 18th century. Norman graduated from high school, and in 1940 was working in retail sales. He enlisted in the National Guard, Coast Artillery Corps, on January 27, 1941, and married Marie Thomas on November 26.
He was a Staff SGT in the 828 CA Battery until some time in 1943 or so when many of the younger and able-bodied men who worked in the Coastal Artillery units were transferred to fight in the European Theatre or the Pacific.
He served as an administrative NCO with the rank of T/3 in the 23rd Headquarters Company, and came home from Europe in the summer of 1945. He was discharged on August 28, 1945 and registered for the draft (an administrative formality) on September 7, 1945.
He and Marie settled in Milton, DE and in 1946 they bought a piece of land containing a filling station. Several other land purchases were recorded in 1948 and 1950. They went on to raise a family of five children: Gary, Linda, Jerry, Rick, and Tom. Norman's son Gary's obituary says that Gary considered his childhood home "a utopia in the big house on the hill in Milton." Little is known about Norman's career, but he did serve as a Town Councilman for a number of years in the 1960s, and was still on the Milton Town Council at the time of his premature death on September 28, 1967. He is buried at Henlopen Memorial Park in Milton, DE.
Sources:
1920 census
1930 census
1940 census
https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/253505:2442?ssrc=pt&tid=89946576&pid=280021987813
1941 enlistment record
1941 marriage record
1945 draft registration
1946 Delaware Land Records
1964 article in the Salisbury MD Daily Times re his election to town council
https://www.newspapers.com/image/292222069/?terms=norman%20s%20lawson&match=1
1967 Find a Grave record
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/140797258/norman-selby-lawson
1967 US Headstone Application for Military Veterans
1967 Social Security death index
2021 son's obituary