Norma M. Jacobs, 88, passed away at her home on May 4, 2016.
She was born the 7th child of Katarzyna and Frank Rogers on April 19, 1928 in Syracuse. Katarzyna died a few days later and all the children were adopted to various foster parents. Norma was adopted by Charles and Eva Balcam of Syracuse, NY. She graduated from Eastwood High School in 1946 and went on to earn her Bachelors Degree in Business management from Syracuse University in 1951.
Norma met her future husband, Thomas E. Jacobs, of Norristown, PA at an Outing Club that had been recently formed at Syracuse YMCA. They were responsible to organizing and executing trips of the Group, going to church services together, bowling, and visiting places of interest within and outside of New York State.
They married in 1958, and had two children, Suzanne born in 1958 who died in November 2009, and Nancy born in 1960.
The family moved to Hopewell Junction in 1964. Here they became active in the Hopewell Reformed Church. For many years Norma managed a Plant and Bake Sale at the Church. She was also active in a Christ Care Group.
She was also a member of the Wednesday Club, a historic society dating to 1900. Its purpose is to expand horizons for Women.
For many years, Norma performed volunteer work for New Hope Manor, a women's drug rehabilitation program, serving on its Board of Directors and teaching sewing to the clients.
In July 1992, Norma first learned she had been adopted when she received a phone call from her sibling sister:" I have news for you about your family that might interest you". Norma replied, "you mean my adopted family or my real family", because her adopted mother had recently given her cause to suspect that she might have been adopted. Then her sister told her the whole story; how her older brother had kept track of his siblings and that Norma had now been found and was reunited. Norma's and her husband then visited her older brother who was visiting a relative near Binghamton, NY. Later that year, sibling and their children has a reunion in Syracuse, and Norma because very close to this close-knit family of peers and their children, visiting them both in Syracuse and California.
The Jacobs visited much of the country by trailer, visiting Maritimes, Disneyworld, the Great Smokey Mountains, and many places in Northwest and Southwest United States. Norma and Tom also enjoyed cruises, visiting Alaska, the Bahamas, the Western Caribbean and Central America.
Norma is survived by her husband, Tom, and their daughter Nancy and her husband Mark Parent.
Friends may call on Monday May 9, 2016 from 2-4 & 7-9pm at Robert H. Auchmoody Funeral Home, 900 Route 82 Hopewell Junction. A Memorial Service will be held on WEDNESDAY may 11, 2016 at 11am at Hopewell Reformed Church with interment to follow in Hopewell Cemetery.
For Norma's guestbook please visit www.hudsonvalleyfuneralhomes.com