Lola Jean Thompson Norwood was born on March 28, 1950, in Pineville, Louisiana to Arles and
Lillie Mae Thompson. She went home to be with her Lord and Savior in Shreveport, Louisiana
on September 1, 2023.
She is survived by her husband, Donald (Don), her son, Greg, her brother, Pete Thompson of
Bryson City, North Carolina, her two sisters, Sandy Thompson of Ball, Louisiana, and Joan
Holmes and husband Jimmy Holmes, seven nieces and nephews and several great nieces and
nephews, lots of cousins, and Charla Streetman, a very special friend who called Lola her Little
Sister and Lola called Charla her Big Sister. They formed a bond that words cannot adequately
describe.
Lola is preceded in death by her parents, her sister, Kim, her grandparents, and aunts and uncles.
She is also preceded in death by Ross and Hazel Norwood, her in-laws who thought of her as a
daughter.
Lola graduated from Tioga High School, attended Northwestern State University until she met
Don, and later on after settling down in Alexandria, Louisiana, she attended Louisiana College.
She would jokingly say that she got her MRS and when Don graduated, he got a Bachelor of
Science degree or what is commonly called a BS degree. Both seemed appropriate! She and Don
were married on January 24, 1970, immediately after he graduated from Northwestern. Five
years later she gave birth to their son, Greg, who brought much joy to their lives.
She was one of the most kindhearted people that anyone could know and easily adapted to
whatever she needed to do. Whether it was sitting with someone who was ill, cooking for a
function, taking someone to a doctor, and just being the person who would do whatever was
needed to do. Even before she and Don were married, she sat with his grandparents while they
were in the hospital. As their parents grew old and their health failed, she dedicated her life to
caring for them regardless of what the need was. She never stopped worrying about her brother,
sisters, and parents. She wanted all to be healthy and to lead good lives.
When she married into the Norwood family, she fit right in doing whatever that family was
doing. That was sometimes doing such things as operating a tractor, getting her hands dirty in the
garden dirt, fishing, and many other things. Bushhogging was one of her favorite farm activities.
About the only thing that she did not do was to hunt. She loved working in a garden, working in
the yard, fishing, traveling, cooking, and being a dedicated wife, mother, daughter, and daughter-
in-law.
Lola loved God and even as she was being taken from the room for surgery, she commented that
if she didn’t make it through the surgery that she was going home to be with God and our
families and friends who have gone on before us. As Don said, as hard as it is to give up the love
of your life, there is comfort in knowing that she is with God and all of those mentioned. She
will be missed for her smiles, compassion, dedication, and determination to get a task done, and
for just being Lola. She was one in a million.
Honoring Lola as pallbearers will be Mark Griffin, Jason Holmes, Steve Palmerton, Lee
Rainwater, Phillip Daniels, and Scott Gentry.
Funeral services celebrating the life of Lola J. Norwood will be held at 10:00 a.m. on
Wednesday, September 6, 2023, at Kilpatrick’s Rose-Neath Chapel, 943 Polk Street, Mansfield,
Louisiana. Interment will follow at Old Union Cemetery, Converse, Louisiana. Officiating the
service will be Dr. Chad Hardbarger. Visitation will be held on Tuesday, September 5, 2023,
from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. at Kilpatrick’s Rose-Neath Funeral Home, Mansfield, Louisiana.
The family requests that memorials be sent to St. Jude’s Research Hospital, P.O. Box 50,
Memphis, TN 38101-9929.
