Star Tribune
Radio personality, media trailblazer Norma Jean Williams lifted community
Norma Jean Williams was a woman who opened her home to strangers, opened her network to aspiring professionals, and told jokes that could make a room full of people laugh.
Williams, the former publisher of the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, a family run publication focused on African Americans since 1934, died June 6. She was 81.
Born in Des Moines in 1941, Williams moved to Minneapolis in 1965 to help run the family business. She would interview African American celebrities visiting Minneapolis like Eartha Kitt, Rosa Parks, James Brownand B.B. King for the newspaper. Her weekly column provided opportunities for singles to meet.
Williams was also a radio personality on Twin Cities radio stations KMOJ and KFAI and was an amateur stand-up comedian.
To Tracey Williams-Dillard, Williams’ second-born daughter, Williams was more than a mother. She was a mentor and a best friend. Williams-Dillard is now publisher of the Spokesman-Recorder, and like her mother, has a strong passion for media.
“All these parallel things,” Williams-Dillard said. “I didn’t connect the dots at the time. I was doing everything mom was doing. She set up the stage for me to be on it, and I’m able to do exactly what she was able to do. I’m so ever grateful for her to have instilled that in me.”
Williams-Dillard created her own series for the publication, and associated dinner events.
In 1980, Williams took under her wing a 20-something from Chicago trying to wiggle his way into the Twin Cities’ events scene.
Pete Rhodes had moved to Minnesota to grow his events company, Boss Productions, and landed a job as Williams’ assistant, accompanying her during her interviews and other meetings.
Rhodes’ association with Williams opened several doors and opportunities, he said, including the chance to meet, and take a photo with Parks.
“When you were with her, you felt like a celebrity,” Rhodes said. “Everyone knew her.”
Rhodes went on to launch his own events, including the Minnesota Black Music Awards, which Williams supported. Williams instilled in Rhodes the importance of media in the African American community, and the BMA blossomed into a network cable channel highlighting Black culture and the contributions of African Americans to music and business.
Trailblazing in media made Williams known throughout the city. Her quieter efforts in the community also made her an inspiration, Williams-Dillard said.
“I could go on and on with insane stories where people were homeless and they just basically had nowhere to go and mom just opened up her house to them,” she said.
Williams’ mother, Launa Newman, was the same way. “They did it without expectation of payback,” Williams-Dillard said.
In her early 50s, Williams went back to school to become a certified nurse assistant to care for the elderly.
She was preceded in death by her mother and father, Wallace Jackman,and is survived by her children Vicky, Tracey, James Jr., Greg and Tina, and her brother Wallace Jackman Jr., 12 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. A memorial service was held June 17 at Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Minneapolis.
In recognition of her contributions, Gov. Tim Walz declared June 17 as Norma Jean Williams Day in the state of Minnesota. A proclamation was read at her memorial service by state officials.
“It was well deserved,” Williams-Dillard said.
“In here, it can be a very dark and lonely place, and it can be difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Benson said. “Events like this just help keep that hope alive.”
While the incarcerated people listened, they were joined at tables by prison staff, guards, the warden, and others, including Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell, who stood against a brick wall. A couple of inmates, who work as photographers for the prison’s newspaper, strolled the cafeteria taking pictures.
When the performance went longer than expected, the warden smiled and gave the performers a thumbs up. He was fine with letting it continue. When it was done, the musicians took a handful of questions and signed flyers. Then inmates were guided back to their cells.
Hennepin County Board candidate Marisa Simonetti was arraigned in District Court on Thursday morning on a misdemeanor charge of 5th-degree assault after a dispute with a tenant of her Edina home.
Simonetti, who was arrested and jailed in June on allegations that she assaulted the tenant by throwing a live tarantula and other objects at the woman, stayed in the court hallway Thursday while her attorney John Daly handled the routine appearance. Simonetti was given a Jan. 9 pre-trial date and plans to plead not guilty.
Wearing a campaign T-shirt, Simonetti said after the court proceeding that she’s done nothing wrong and plans to fight the charge “to the death.”
Simonetti said her campaign for the District 6 seat is going well and that she sent out “a ton of texts” last week. “We’re getting feedback, positive feedback. It’s going to be very exciting to see what happens on Nov. 5,” she said.
An email to Simonetti’s opponent, Commissioner Heather Edelson, was not immediately returned Thursday.
In April, Simonetti came in second in a six-candidate special primary for an open seat on the board and then lost the special election Edelson, a DFLer and former state representative. Simonetti has campaigned as a Republican, although some local Republicans have since pulled their support for her.
The board oversees the county’s $2.7 billion budget and 10,000 employees. Commissioners earn $122,225 annually.
District 6, which covers cities including Edina, Hopkins, Mound, Minnetonka, Wayzata, Long Lake, Shorewood and the northern portion of Eden Prairie.
“I wanted to be just like him, to love every part of the competition, to be the first to show up and the last to leave, to love the grind, to be your best when you don’t feel your best and make other people around you the best version of themselves,” Ionescu said. “And to wake up and do it again the next day.”
In her final season with the Ducks, Ionescu became the first NCAA Division I basketball player to record more then 2,000 career points, 1,000 assists and 1,000 rebounds. She dedicated the performance that put her over the edge to Bryant. “That was for him,” she told ESPN.
“I can’t really put it into words,” Ionescu said. “He’s looking down and really proud of me and just really happy for this moment with my team.”
Ionescu is a menace from behind the 3-point line like Steph Curry, Luka Doncic and Caitlin Clark
Ionescu has made more three-pointers during the regular season than any other WNBA player in history.
Ionescu’s clutch three might give Minnesota basketball fans deja vu. It was reminiscent of the three-pointer Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks sank in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals to win that game 109-108 and put the Timberwolves on their heels. The Mavs ended up winning the series 4-1.
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