Norma Ruth Cumbaa

Our beloved mother, Norma Ruth Moos Cumbaa, 85, passed away February 19th, 2025, from struggles with dementia and heart disease.

Norma was the heart of our home and family. Christ was the center of her life. She was always thinking of others, living a life of Christian service and encouraged us to follow suit. She raised two children, Randy Cumbaa and Gayle Samford, and was always there for her one and only grandson, Cortland Samford.

Norma was married to the love of her life, cut short at Charles’ passing in 2021, for fifty-nine years. They met in Houston while in college when Dad and his fraternity brothers rented a house and Mom and her finishing school friends lived in the garage apartment out back near West U.

Norma attended and graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School, Port Arthur and Lamar University, Beaumont.

Her career was filled with great opportunities. She started as a teacher in Bridge City at the Junior High, teaching English and Business. When she found out she was going to be a mom, she stayed home for the next fifteen years.

She spent her time with her church family at First Christian Church, Port Arthur volunteering with the youth group, teaching Sunday School, and always available supporting children. She was a Baseball/Dance mom, Cub Scout and Camp Fire mom, and helped with the school’s PTA and Church VBS. After that, she and Charles opened an Electronics store with friends in Beaumont. Up next, she spent the last twenty-seven years as Lamar University’s Veterans Administrator. She loved guiding veterans through degree plans and graduation. She retired in 2019 at 79 years old. She loved her job!

Norma enjoyed traveling. She got to do a lot of that with her job at Lamar, and she made lifelong friends through her conventions and trips. She also loved her travels to familial houses in Arkansas, Galveston, Idaho, and road trips with Charles. She loved to fish. She could sit by the pond or on the jetty and fish for hours. She caught many fish, but her best was a twenty-two-inch flounder on Pleasure Island. And oh, how she could cook! Her specialty being fried shrimp, bubble french fries, and BBQ crabs!

Norma was a kind and gentle soul who loved greatly without end. She adored her family, church family, neighbors, and friends. She never met a stranger and had a huge heart.

She is survived by her brother and his partner, Otto Louis Moos and Virginia Hellenberg, of Fayetteville, Arkansas; her sisters-in-law, JoAnn Waldrip, of Pasadena, and Cathleen Cumbaa; her son and his wife, Randy and Shannon Cumbaa, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; her daughter and her husband, Gayle and Steven Samford, of The Woodlands; her one and only grandson, Cortland Samford, of The Woodlands; as well as several cousins, nieces and nephews, many friends and neighbors.

She is preceded in death by her parents, Ruth and Otto Louis Moos, of San Antonio/Port Arthur/Fayetteville; her in-laws, Jesse Jackson and Ora Lee Cumbaa, of Mobile, Alabama, and Wilma Evelyn and Joseph Thompson, of Galveston; her brother-in-law, Jack Cumbaa, of Santa Fe.

A gathering of Mrs. Cumbaa’s family and friends will be 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m., Monday, February 24, 2025, at Broussard’s, 505 North 12^th Street, Nederland. Her graveside service will be 11:00 a.m., Tuesday, February 25, 2025, at Galveston Memorial Park Cemetery, 7301 Memorial Street, Hitchcock.

Today we celebrate her caregivers Barbara, Jessica, Normia, and Jo and all of the amazing lifelong neighbors of South 6th Street.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions in Mrs. Cumbaa’s honor may be made to First Christian Church, 5856 9^th Avenue, Port Arthur, Texas 77642.

Missing you comes in waves; we feel like we are drowning. Knowing you are with Dad and Jesus… It is well with our soul.