Photographs

A life, and the places it touched

Norma’s life in the family photographs printed in the book, and the places in Boone connected to her, then and now. Captions are the author’s own where he wrote them.

From the book

Eight photographs from the book’s photograph insert, 1928 to 1966.

Norma as a girl, sitting on a garden bench — Norma nearing eleven in 1928

Norma as a teenager holding her baby brother on the grass — Norma (age 14) with the author (age 1) in 1932

Studio portrait of Norma, smiling, in a dark dress with a white collar — Norma at twenty in 1937
*Original in hand-tinted oil*

Norma in a long fur coat standing on a sidewalk in front of a church — Norma, age 26, showing off her fur coat in 1943

Norma walking on a street in front of a church with arched windows — Norma, age 27, in 1944
*The church behind her later burned to the ground*

Norma standing in front of a house wearing a work shirt and trousers — Norma around 1944 showing the “uniform” she wore working at the Ankeny ordinance plant
*Note short haircut for safety reasons*

Norma in a floral skirt standing on a lawn — Norma at age 28 in 1945
*Last picture before she was married*

Norma beside her son in his graduation cap and gown — Norma at age 48 with her son at the time of his high school graduation in 1966.
*She was murdered thirteen years later.*

The gravestone

Boone Memorial Gardens cemetery, Boone, Iowa.

Norma Mae Maynard’s gravestone, engraved Forget me not, 1917–1979 — Norma’s gravestone in Boone Memorial Gardens cemetery. It was placed in the spring of 2000 – twenty-one years after her “disappearance”, and patiently waits until it can truly mark a burial site.Note plaintive admonishment of stone’s message: “Forget me not”. — Sidney S. Louis

Two flat grave markers side by side: Carl E. Maynard, TEC 5 US Army, World War II, and Norma Mae Maynard, 1917–1979 — Norma’s stone beside her husband’s: Carl E. Maynard, TEC 5, US Army, World War II, August 20, 1914 – January 19, 1979.Photo: Bea Upah

Black and white photograph of the Maynard house: a two-storey white frame house with a gabled porch — 1221 Seventh Street, Boone, Iowa

This is the house where Norma Maynard lived for more than thirty years.

This is where she was brutally murdered in early 1979.

This is where her body was buried in the basement’s dirt floor for a year.

This is where, after a year, her body was removed and buried outside on the property, where it remains to this day. City officials have made no effort to locate the remains of a murdered citizen.

Sidney S. Louis

The same house in colour in 2022, with white siding, a red roof and a screened front porch — The same house in 2022. The “M” for Maynard was still on the front screen door; the door has since been replaced.Photo: Bea Upah, 2022

Do you have a photograph of Norma?

If you knew her, worked with her, or have a picture from those years, the family would be glad to hear from you.

Get in touch

A life, and the places it touched

From the book

The gravestone

1221 Seventh Street, Boone, Iowa

Do you have a photograph of Norma?