Norma Uman

Norma Esther Uman, 76, died on April 13, 2022, in Pocatello, Idaho.

Norma was born in Shanghai, China, in 1946 to Margot Rabe and Nils Rabe. Margot had fled the Nazi persecution of Jews in Germany to Shanghai in the 1930s, where she met Nils, who had settled there after a stint in the Swedish merchant marine. In 1949 the family escaped the Maoist Revolution by emigrating to San Francisco as refugees, with Margot giving birth to Norma’s brother Walter en route across the Pacific. The family settled in Philadelphia shortly after arrival, and became US citizens. In 1958 they moved to Los Angeles. Norma attended Venice High School, where she made numerous lifelong friends and graduated in 1964. Norma greatly enjoyed many high school reunions over the years with her fellow Gondoliers.

While working at Prudential Insurance Company’s Western Home Office, Norma met and married her first husband, Walter Johnson. In 1970 their only child, Kristine, was born, and they lived in Westchester for 8 years. After the Johnsons relocated to Westlake Village, she and Walter were guardians for Norma’s niece, Sarah, for several years.

Norma served the community as PTO president at Triunfo Elementary and as an assistant to a speech therapist working with children under 3 years old. These roles delighted her as she always found joy in interacting with small children.

In later years, Norma worked for ARCS Mortgage and Countrywide Home Loans, involved in many aspects of the mortgage industry including underwriting and fraud prevention. While working at Countrywide, Norma enjoyed saying that she worked not for the FBI but the FPI—the Fraud Prevention and Investigation department—complete with a shiny gold badge.

After Norma and Walter divorced, she married again in 1998 to David Uman. Shortly after David’s death in 2010, Norma retired and moved to Pocatello to be near her daughter and family. In recent years she had been living at Rosetta Assisted Living, where she was beloved as a sweet and spunky resident.

Norma’s friends and family remember her as a patriotic person, preferring red, white, and blue for her clothing and home décor. She thought highly of people who serve in the military and first responders, and often brought cookies to the local fire station to give them her thanks. Norma was known as a snazzy dresser and loved her shoe collection. She had many beloved dogs over the years, especially Chaucer, Tandy, and Willow. Her beloved pop music of the 1950s and 1960s was the soundtrack of her life, and she greatly enjoyed reading mystery novels. Especially in her later years Norma treasured her Jewish ancestry and found moral guidance in that faith. Although she never went to college, Norma was a lifelong learner, interested in astronomy and history, especially of England.

Norma is survived by her first husband Walter Johnson; daughter Kristine Hunt (Christopher) and grandchildren Duncan and Beckett; niece Sarah Rabe and nephews Nils Rabe and Michael Rabe, and numerous grand-nieces and nephews.