JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Family and friends on Friday gathered to remember an educator, who served as a guidance counselor at Raines High School for 35 years.
Deborah Mosley Norman is credited with changing many lives for the better throughout her life. She was the first winner of the News4JAX Jacksonville Image Award for Education in Excellence back in 2020.
She’s credited with changing the lives of a countless number of students as the longest serving guidance counselor at Raines.
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“The greatest joy for me in education was just doing all that I could so that everybody could be everything that they could,” Norman said when receiving her award.
Norman’s life was celebrated Friday with an outpouring of love at the First Baptist Church of Oakland.
“It’s a huge loss for us,” said Pastor Chris McKee Jr. “We certainly understand that there is a hole in the hearts of her family, of this community and of this church that will never quite be filled.”
“You could hear the air, feel the air being sucked out of all of us with the knowledge that Deborah had left us,” said Deacon Cleve Warren.
McKee says Norman was a champion for scholarships for students at Raines and her church.
“And not only made sure children had money, stuck with them all the way through their academic pursuits across the graduation line,” McKee said. “I shared with the congregation Sunday, a woman of excellence and education and service to her community. And we’re gonna live out that legacy.”
The homegoing celebration for Deborah Mosley Norman will be held at the same church Saturday at 11 a.m.