Norma Jean (Wildermuth) Gault

Norma Jean (Wildermuth) Gault was the fourth of Earl Adam Wildermuth and Sadye Irene (Fleming) Wildermuth’s five children — born 14 September 1930 in Marietta, Washington County, Ohio, eight years after her eldest sister Ruth Irene, six years after her older brother Robert Earl (Chuck’s grandfather), and two years after her older brother Carl Edward.

She lived through the Marietta-Wildermuth household’s 1930s and 1940s arc — the Depression years, the 1937 flood that came through the family’s 413 Harmar Street house, and the war years that took her brother Robert Earl to the South Pacific on B-24 missions.

She married Algie Eugene “Gene” Gault on 2 February 1951 in Marietta — Gene, born 8 August 1930 in Steubenville and a chemical worker, was the son of Donald M. Gault and Irene Bills. Norma had graduated Marietta High School in the class of 1948.

Norma and Gene settled in the Newark–Hebron area of Licking County and raised three children: Jay (Denise) Gault and John W. Gault, both of Newark, and Ann (Michael) Fornataro, also of Newark. By the time of her 2007 obituary she was a devoted member of the Hebron United Methodist Church and a Sunday-school teacher there, a 25-year member of Eagon Chapter 123, Order of the Eastern Star, a Past Mother Advisor for the Hebron Assembly of the Order of Rainbow for Girls, and a founding member and two-term president of the 19th Hole Club at Harbor Hills Country Club — as well as “an avid Ohio State Buckeye fan.” She died 26 May 2007 at Heath, Ohio, age 76, after an extended illness, survived by Gene and their two granddaughters, Brooke and Brayann; she was buried at Fairmount Cemetery in Jacksontown, Pastor Paul Hansen officiating. Her brother Carl Edward had died in Licking County eighteen years earlier.

Sources: Dale Eesley / FamilySearch — Norma Jean Wildermuth (LYRQ-YSK); Robert Earl Wildermuth’s 1989 memoir and Ruth Irene Wildermuth Ridenour’s parallel sketch; Norma J. Gault obituary, The Marietta Times, 28 May 2007, and the Wildermuth-family register (family papers, transmitted by Chuck Eesley 2026).