Hartsel L. Storrer

Hartsel Lavern Norton Storrer was born on March 22, 1920 on a farm near Hartford, Kansas. Her parents, Archie and Joanna Norton, were in the process of building a house at the time. Hartsel's mother told the carpenter that he needed to get the house built as soon as possible as she was expecting her second child in March. Well, the house wasn't finished so Hartsel was born in the wash house. A story that she loved to tell.

In August 1927 Hartsel's grandfather died from a car accident. Soon after the accident Hartsel's father moved his family back to the Norton farm where he had grown up and two previous generations of Norton's had lived and farmed. When they moved there William and Hartsel went to school at District #8. Hartsel was a year younger than William, but she had been allowed to start school at the same time as he did. Hartsel and her brother went through school together in the same class. Her younger brother, Lewis, started at District #8 when he was old enough. Hartsel remembers the day that the new District #8 brick building was finished and all of her schoolmates and her picked up their books and walked into the beautiful new building.

After eighth grade graduation Hartsel went into Madison High School. She graduated in 1937. Upon graduation it was written in the paper that, “Hartsel Norton has the enviable record of attending eight years of grammar school and four years of high school without once being absent or tardy.” Her and William then went to Emporia where she received a teaching certificate from Kansas State Teachers College of Emporia. At that time you could attend college for one year and then start teaching. After she taught for a year, she continued to keep up her college credits by taking eight hours of schooling each year. She attended summer school two years and then starting taking hours during the school year. Hartsel taught in five different school districts starting in the 1938-39 school year in District 97 (Lyon County School), then District 78, District 5 (Virgil), District 85, and then District 15 in the school year 1944-1945.

Hartsel met her future husband, Carol Storrer, through a friend and began dating after Carol graduated from high school in 1935. They continued dating until April 18, 1942 when they married. They wanted to keep their marriage a secret so they went to Burlington to get their marriage license, so it wouldn't be printed in the Eureka (Greenwood County) paper. They were concerned that she might not be hired again to teach if she were married, but the news came out and she was still hired to teach again.

Carol and Hartsel lived on and farmed their farm southeast of Madison. They had their first daughter, Carol Ann, in 1947 and their second daughter, Charla, in 1951. Hartsel was a very hard working wife and mother as she helped Carol on the farm, raised chickens, helped butcher cattle and hogs, grew large gardens and canned the fruits of her labor. Hartsel also was a great seamstress making clothes for her daughters. She was a member of the ladies HDU club and a member of the Central Christian Church in Madison. She taught Sunday School for years and was sewing leader in the Madison Pacesetters 4-H Club.

After their girls left home Hartsel worked at the Madison Manor as an aide for a number of years.

After Carol passed in 1978 she decided she couldn't take care of the farm and cattle any longer so she sold the farm to her daughter, Carol Ann, and husband, Phillip Flock, and moved to Madison.

When moving to town in 1980 Hartsel became more involved in the community. She started volunteering at the Madison Senior Center. Every week day she worked there for 37 years volunteering. She wrote her longtime column, “Senior Moments”, for the Madison News until she turned 100 years old. She also volunteered for the American Cancer Society for 27 years, helping raise money by selling daffodils and was active in Relay for Life. She also volunteered on the Madison Days committee. Her and Marjorie Winzeler organized the first Annual Alumni Banquet held during Madison Days in 1991 and continued with it until approximately 2019. Hartsel also helped out at the Breadbasket in Madison. Hartsel was quoted saying, “I just enjoy helping people”. She was always happiest when she was busy.

On January 29, 2024, at the age of 103 she moved to Sunflower Care Home in Emporia and then June 3, 2024, she moved to Vintage Park in Osage City.

Services will be held at 11:00 A.M., Tuesday, June 3, 2025 at the VanArsdale Funeral Home in Madison. Burial will follow services at #8 Cemetery. The family will receive friends Tuesday form 10:00 A.M., until service time at the funeral home. Reverend Bob Robison is officiating services. Memorial contributions may be made to the Madison Alumni Association or the #8 School House Fund and sent in care of the funeral home at Box 488, Madison, Kansas 66860.