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.
When the Minnesota Supreme Court this week declined to hear an appeal by the University of St. Thomas regarding the environmental impact of its new hockey/basketball arena under construction, neighbor and arena foe Dan Kennedy said the “ethical” thing for the university to do was stop construction until neighbor concerns are addressed.
Not going to happen, university officials said Thursday.
While a public review of a revised Environmental Assessment Worksheet continues through Nov. 7, construction of the 5,000-seat Lee and Penny Anderson Arena continues. In an e-mail Thursday, a university spokesman said the arena is expected to be completed in fall 2025.
“The University of St. Thomas is aware of the Minnesota Supreme Court’s decision to deny its petition to appeal and is reviewing the potential impacts of this decision,” an emailed statement from St. Thomas said. “Last week, the City of St. Paul published an updated EAW for public comment, and that process will continue. Construction of the Lee & Penny Anderson Arena will also continue, as permitted by law.”
But Kennedy said he believes that decision is not only wrong, but illegal. Because the state Court of Appeals this summer ruled the project’s first environmental review was inadequate, its site plans and building permits are invalid, said the president of Advocates for Responsible Development.
“We need somebody to specifically tell the University of St. Thomas that they must comply with the law,” Kennedy said. “This is an institution of higher learning, with a law school. They should comply with the law.”
Kennedy said he thought the Minnesota Court of Appeals had insisted on exactly that. In August, the appellate court ordered the city and university to conduct a new Environmental Assessment Worksheet. The previous assessment didn’t do enough to study the arena’s potential harm to the neighborhood’s parking, traffic and air quality, the court ruled.
“The reason why is that more sunlight in the morning time helps reinforce waking up, and having less light in the evening is less stimulation,” he said. “So when we’re winding down, preparing for sleep, having fewer hours of sunlight in the evening can help promote that process of falling asleep.”
Akingbola acknowledges that it can be sad to walk out of work or school when it’s already dark out, but in the long run, standard time is the way to go.
The U.S. already tried daylight savings year round in 1974
Despite the medical advice, there have been calls in recent years to make daylight savings time permanent.
Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer, R-Big Lake, tried to pass a bill as recently as 2021 to make daylight savings time permanent, but it did not pass the Legislature.
The U.S. tried once before. According to Minnesota Star Tribune archives, due to an energy crisis, President Richard Nixon passed a law in January 1974 that made daylight savings a year-round thing.
A month into it, the Minneapolis Tribune ran an article saying there were calls to reverse the decision because there were more accidents in the pre-dawn darkness, particularly involving school children waiting for the bus. Under daylight savings time in January, sunrise wasn’t until well after 8 a.m. in Minnesota.
Karl-Anthony Towns may be in New York City, but his heart is in Minnesota.
On Wednesday night, Towns had some sweet seats for a Billie Eilish show at Madison Square Garden with his partner, Jordyn Woods, when she caught him watching the Timberwolves play the Chicago Bulls in a preseason game on his phone. Her video, posted to her Instagram story, made rounds on social media Thursday.
In the video, flames are literally spewing out from Eilish’s stage, lights are flashing all around and others in the crowd are head bobbing. And there is Towns, holding his phone in both hands and muttering to himself as the Timberwolves are down 88-75 late in the third quarter in a meaningless game.
“I promise he was enjoying the concert,” Woods wrote in the video’s caption.
The Wolves would go on to lose that game, 125-123. A nail-biter.
Towns’ trade to the New York Knicks for Julius Randle and others stunned the NBA world and all of Minnesota, where he was a beloved player for nine seasons and a leader on a team rapidly ascending toward championship contention.
“It was a lot of emotions,” Towns said. “Some amazing moments and times in nine years of my life in Minnesota, a place that I’ve called home. Guys who are not just teammates to me but brothers. We were like brothers. It definitely was a wild day, definitely coming to work.”
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