Norma Lee (Swanson Fischer) Baldwin passed from this world Sunday, January 19, 2014 in St. Louis. Norma was born to in 1924 to Ernest Swanson and Helen (Randolph) in Maplewood NJ. She was the youngest of four children and the first to be born in a hospital. Tragically, as a toddler, she lost her mother to Pernicious Anemia and was sent away to her grandmother Lillian in Hillside. For the next five years she enjoyed being an only child until when she also lost her grandmother Lillian to a stroke. Back at her father’s home, Norma was raised by her older siblings. She worked alongside the employees rooting chrysanthemums and helping her father develop the flower varieties for which he was well known. Norma graduated from Columbia High School in Maplewood, and married her dashing boyfriend Bud Fischer, as WWII refocused all future plans of college and careers. It was during Bud’s Army training that Norma discovered her enduring love for South Carolina, a place she would return to in later years. While raising her children in South Orange, NJ, she worked part time as an interior decorator for Sapolin Paints. In 1963, following the advice and encouragement of good friend Wesley Pollitt, she obtained a real estate license, got her first car, and joined the offices of Ann Sylvester’s Realty Corner. She was able to use information gleaned from all the conversations she had had with her father after the work day was done. Information from their talks involving land deals and real estate paid off in her new career and whetted her appetite for success. It was not without courage and determination that she made a success of her chosen career during a time when women working outside the home was a novelty, and not always regarded in a positive and supportive light. Balancing children, a large home and a career made other goals obtainable. Norma selflessly invested her earnings in her children (braces!), college and beloved riding lessons, with some left over for wall to wall carpeting. As the children left the home, her marriage also came to an end. Norma branched out, getting her general contractor’s license and building a house for resale on a lot that no one else had seen the value in. She married Ken Baldwin after a long friendship. She moved to Lake Hopatcong to invest in an area she saw was developing and rebuilt a lake front boat repair garage into a handsome 4 unit rental. Next she purchased a foreclosure home, her first of three, completely rehabbing the space and discovering an inground pool while chopping down the weeds in the over grown back yard. In 1991 Norma moved with Ken to South Carolina to another foreclosure home in Hilton Head. There she designed and oversaw the complete interior finishing of a builders shell. The house completed, she took a part time job to stave off boredom, carefully smearing the place where her age was noted on the job application. She enjoyed southern hospitality, and worked at becoming more than another “yankee” transplant. Norma relished the benefits of living by the ocean: crabbing on the plantation docks, and being able to purchase fresh sea food right from the fishermen as they came in. In Bluffton she rescued her trusty companion Dixie, a noble Carolina Ditch Dog, who would remain by her side for the next 15 years. Norma loved the Georgia peaches and would bring crates of them north when she visited. Norma often drove visitors around so they could appreciate the architecture of the plantation homes and old southern towns. Later, even after macular degeneration was stealing her eyesight, she could still guide visitors over country roads, without error, to her favorite haunts. The only imperfection of living on the coast was the spate of hurricanes that plagued the island in those years. On a Sunday drive away from the coast, Ken discovered a foreclosure home in the lovely town of Aiken. Norma was inspired again to tear apart the ugly and bring a dark home into the light. With its serpentine brick wall and amazing sunroom, it was one of her best restorations. In 2007 Norma decided it was finally time to down-size and purchased her seventh home. Moving into a smaller, almost new home in Aiken, she, Ken and Dixie spent their last years together in sunlight and warmth on the thick white carpets she adored. When Ken passed away, Norma decided to move to her daughter in St. Louis where she was able to enjoy the doting attention and companionship she had so missed. Norma will be missed by her three children, son Bud and his wife Roxy, their three children Tammy, Matthew and Samantha, daughter Betsy Nickel and her husband John Taylor, daughter Nanse Fischer and her foster daughter Abby Kerr and long time family friends Elizabeth Sedillo, Elizabeth Prior, Kathy Sutton and Jana Barton and many friends and relatives in Arizona, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Utah, Virginia and Sweden.In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Norma Baldwin’s name to the local animal rescue of your choice.