Tribute to my Mom on Mother's Day

Norma Lee Sexton Matthews was born in Marshalltown, Iowa December 17, 1930 to Helen and Charles Sexton. She was the second of four children, but would not settle for second to anyone the rest of her life. Among other things, she was the State of Iowa spelling bee champion and the female editor of the Daily Iowan newspaper while attending the University of Iowa. She edited the newspaper in Cooperstown, New York but returned to her native Iowa to marry the Georgia Peach of Meredith Publishing in Dan J. Matthews, Sr. and started on a long road of political exploration and innovation. She started a business called Campaigns, Incorporated which took many of the principals she learned the hard way in her own failed races for the Board of Education and House of Representatives. Along the way Caucuses were held in our house at 518 44th street on the legendary Snake Drive just north of Grand, Presidential candidates came knocking on our door and many hands were grasped and acquaintances made. I remember Fred Harris, Jimmy Carter and John Lindsay coming to the front door, and she did not even work for them. She did work for George McGovern in 1972 and Morris Udall in 1976 in their quests to be President of the United States. She worked with the State of Iowa and the Democratic National Committee to move Iowa to the front of the line with the first Caucuses well ahead of the New Hampshire primary. It was a wonderful environment to grow up in and showed the power of politics on a personal scale.