
Obituary of Norma T. Michalec
Norma Travis Michalec
June 4, 1924 – January 18, 2025
With great sadness the Michalec family reports the passing of Norma Michalec at the age of 100. Family members referred to her as the last premiere suburban housewife of Westchester County, New York.
Though Norma loved Maine, having learned its magic from childhood summer visits, she was a New Yorker through and through. On her father’s side she was the great-great granddaughter of Issac Craigere Buckhout, a chief architect of the First Grand Central Depot (forerunner of Grand Central Terminal) and the Fourth Avenue Improvement, both in New York City. The Buckhout line can be traced to the early settlement of New Amsterdam. On her mother’s side she was the great granddaughter of William Robinson, a 19th century photographer of theatre and entertainment luminaries who had successful studios in London, Chicago, and New York before making White Plains his last home. Her grandfather, Isaac Boyce, learned his skills from William Robinson and founded the Boyce Photography Studio in White Plains in 1901. Her parents, Robert and Mildred Travis, worked there and eventually overtook the firm.
Norma grew up in the intimate community culture of White Plains in the early part of the century, a community of tight families, small skilled proprietorships, movies that went from silent to talkie, parlor pianos, performances of musicians and singers who found White Plains a convenient venue to New York City, and cars with no heaters. She recalled how she and her older sister Marion would pile under buffalo robes when taking a winter trip to visit relatives in Upstate New York in the 20s and 30s. Even so, “I froze all the way!”, she would say. In the summer of 1929 the family travelled by rail to visit friends and relatives in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Though it was an exciting trip, with a snowball fight when the train stopped at Pike’s Peak, what she remembered most was, ironically, the heat. She adored dolls from an early age, collecting them and ultimately generating an impressive array from around the world. Norma was always the tag-along pest to her much older sister. More than once, she was permitted to accompany Marion when escaping out the back window of the house for an evening of roaming lest she tattle. When not pestering her sister, she would strap on roller skates and, with a tall stick, spin through White Plains in search of friends, relatives, and adventure. “She had an eye for what was of value,” Marion remarked. “She would ask people for things. So often she would come home with loot. I don’t know how she did it.” Norma was always close to her sister, being sure to talk by phone with her several times a week, something that continued until Marion’s death in 2013.
Norma graduated from White Plains High School in 1943 and landed a job as a researcher at Time, Inc., commuting by train to Manhattan from White Plains. She, and particularly her sister, enjoyed theatre and joined the Gilbert & Sullivan society. While performing in The Mikado she fell in love with the one person who couldn’t hold a note, George Michalec. Though George was thrown out of the chorus, Norma kept him, and they married in 1949. By 1956 they had found land in Pleasantville, New York (purchased from Carsten Johnson) and moved into a new house designed by George. Three children appeared during the 50s: Sally in 1954, James in 1956, and Anne in 1959. For Norma it was the perfect suburban moment. She relished raising three children, maintaining an extremely tidy house (put your shoes away and hang up your coat!), knowing that her children attended good public schools, as well as her close proximity to extended family and top-of-the-line shopping at department stores such as B. Altman’s, Bonwit Teller, and Saks Fifth Avenue in White Plains. In addition, George’s professional community at General Precision Laboratories in Pleasantville introduced her to a friendly circle of highly talented and educated men and women with children like her own. When later asked what she thought of the 1950s she said, “That was the happiest time of my life.”
Norma’s first trip overseas came in 1964 when George obtained his PHD in Mechanical Engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology. George flew west to accept his diploma and then continued westward, taking a tour of Asia. Norma then traveled east to Rome, where they met up. Fate would play a fascinating hand when George’s flight from New Delhi to Tashkent stopped in Kabul, Afghanistan, due to mechanical trouble. The three-day delay allowed him to discover a place to which no one gave much thought, let alone knew about. Five years later, as a teacher of mechanical engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology, he was presented with an opportunity to teach at Kabul University under USAID. Norma was quick to approve, packing up the children for a two-year trip. Norma’s fastidious high standards for keeping house, however, came under serious challenge at the hardship post. “Dust, dust, dust all the time,” was usually what she said when sizing up life in the distant kingdom. Still, she enjoyed the travel and experience immensely, always appreciative of the learning experience for herself and the family.
She had always known the value of books, bringing them home for the children, introducing them to authors such as E. B. White, Beatrix Potter, and Robert McCloskey. Upon returning from Afghanistan and until 1995 Norma worked at the Mount Pleasant Public Library.
She and George retired to Brunswick, Maine in 1996. With this, Norma met her life-long dream of living in Maine, a state that she and her family often visited during her childhood. To her final days she took a deep interest in Maine, was very supportive and defensive of its natural environment, and delighted in its arts culture. Norma was also a staunch fan of LL Bean, ensuring that all family members received multiple items of Bean clothing. She loved her Subaru, adventuring wherever anyone wanted to go. Often, when walking became difficult, she would wait patiently in the car while others went into a store to browse. She found taking the grandchildren to fields to pick strawberries nothing but a pleasure. As she aged, she encouraged her family to explore the world and lived vicariously through them, relishing stories of family exploits and day-to-day encounters with anything and everything, including such simple pleasures as bird sightings. “Are you happy with what you do?” she recently asked. “Then be happy and enjoy life.”
Norma was the last of her generation for this family, and through her we glimpsed a past world that seems so far away and foreign. Her strictness in running a household and following rules was legendary and at many times quite challenging, for there was always an expectation that she and others should perform with “proper” manners, dress, and decorum—all belonging to a now-departed set of societal norms advanced by the people whom we glimpse in our family photos. And, given all the photographers in our ancestry, there are many to glimpse. Norma helped us sort these photos, identifying people, places and moments. 100 years is a long time. People, places, moments - a doorway into family history, herself, and a whole way of living that has now been shut forever. We carry forward what we can.
Norma was a member of the Purchase Friends Meeting (Quaker) in West Harrison, New York. She is survived by two daughters, Sally Michalec (Tom Halbach) of Boise, Idaho; Anne Payson (Pays) of Falmouth, Maine; and, a son, James Michalec (Heather DeHaan) of Binghamton, New York, as well as five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held May 17th at 11 am at the Purchase Friends Meeting, 4455 Purchase Street, West Harrison, New York.
In her memory donations may be made to the Westchester County Historical Society, Elmsford, New York. Memories and condolences may be shared on her tribute wall.