Rita Norberg was the center of attention at a party for her 90th birthday at the commons room of the Crest View Lutheran Home on July 26. Norberg, a resident of the past six-plus years, received dozens of visiting friends and relatives, and the walls of the room were covered with photos, letters and other mementos of her life.
Rita Gould was born in Independence, Iowa, and spent her first five years in Waterloo. Norberg’s father was a machinist working for John Deere; he had moved to Minnesota to work for Northern Pump, where he helped make gun mounts for battleships. Her mother brought Rita and her two sisters to join him in early 1941. The family lived in North Minneapolis and Spring Lake Park before moving to Columbia Heights.
Norberg recalled, “We lived in a rental house in the Camden neighborhood, and I went to Webber Park School and learned to swim in the Camden pool.” In 1943, the family bought a house in Spring Lake Park on an acre of land, half of which was gardened. Norberg entered Columbia Heights High School in 1946, where she played sports in the Girls Athletic Association (GAA), worked on the school’s yearbook, the Cohian, and was president of Y-Teens in her senior year.
Both Rita and her future husband Gayle Norberg graduated from Columbia Heights High School in 1950. Rita’s parents divorced in 1951 and she went to live with her father in North Minneapolis until her marriage to Gayle in 1952. They raised two daughters, Kristina and Amy, with two grandchildren, Ian and Kai.
After high school, Rita took a ten-month private secretarial course at the Minnesota School of Business, and after they were married, Gayle entered a five-year course for engineering at the University of Minnesota, graduating in 1957.
In an interview, Norberg recalled her life with Gayle, with whom she was “completely entwined for 70 years.” She said that after college, he worked for Winzen Research Inc. on manned high-altitude balloons before embarking on a 30-year career with Control Data (now Ceridian). His work there included presenting papers in Denmark and Austria (with Rita accompanying) and receiving 29 patents. He also served on the Columbia Heights City Council for 12 years.
Rita was active in civic life; she was a member of the Friends of the Columbia Heights Public Library for 55 years, twice serving as president. In the 1960s, she served as Third Congressional District (Anoka and rural Hennepin counties) chairwoman, and attended Governor Harold LeVander’s Inaugural Ball in 1967. In 1976, the Norbergs contributed a recording which was added to items placed in a 50-year time capsule buried in Wargo Park. In 2002, largely for her library volunteer work, she was named Columbia Heights’ Humanitarian of the Year.
For 17 years, Rita ran her own business, Secondary Market Service, which put on local estate sales. She recalled that Gayle had business cards printed for her, adding, “You need to charge for what’s up here” (in her head). Her lifelong interest in antiques led her to select items from sales for many displays at the Columbia Heights Public Library. She calls herself a rock hound, and collects agates, china and antique buttons and jewelry as well. After the couple bought a house in Columbia Heights in 1962, Rita often visited a nearby abandoned quarry to search for interesting stones. In the 1990s, she finally got to the beaches of Sanibel Island, Florida, renowned for its seashells.
Rita describes herself as a moderate Republican believing in balancing the budget as well as keeping needed social programs. She said we should do what we can to help people help themselves, “Realizing that there are many with mental and physical handicaps.” She feels that the U.S. needs to keep its promises, adding, “When Trump abrogated treaties, the GOP lost me.” A devout Christian, Rita taught Sunday school at St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church for ten years.
In 2019, Rita gave a speech at the Columbia Heights Library titled “Columbia Heights Memories,” where she demonstrated her prodigious recall of life in that city for the past 75 years. In a video, she notes the lost drugstores and grocery stores, the private railroad to the waterworks, the smell of the Cargill linseed oil factory, streetcars to Nybergs’s Dairy Bar, John Ryan’s Baths for swimming, bowling (without pinsetters) at the field house, and a poignant image of her in her formal gown, taking a bus to the prom at the downtown YMCA.
At the birthday party, Rita reflected on her life: “I lived in the best of times and the worst of times, but I’m a Leo, and a cup-half-full person; I’m an optimist and I trust in the Lord.” She thanked God for her husband Gayle (who died in 2016); for getting a good education; for good health (while noting that she has had 14 operations and has only one kidney); for having a sister living only seven minutes away for 30 years; and for having, “lifelong friends, newfound friends, the beauty of nature, and my good memory.”
Asked if she gets around much these days, she replied: “I drive a 2003 Elantra, and I go wherever I want!”
Below: Joan Valentine, left, one of many friends who gathered July 26 to help Rita Norberg celebrate her 90th birthday. (Photo by Mark Peterson)
