Norman Jacob Ridenour passed away surrounded by family at 2:28 a.m. on May 22 at the Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center. There is barely a corner of Southeast Missouri left untouched by Ridenour.

He was born on November 3, 1931, on the family home place just outside of Puxico to Louis D and Edna E. Ridenour. He served in the US Air Force during the Korean War from 1951-1958. He was stationed primarily in Barstow, California, in the heart of Death Valley. During that time, he sent his paychecks to his family in Puxico.

He met Theressa Snider at Frosty’s Drive-in at Poplar Bluff. She said she fell in love with his blue eyes and they married on November 21, 1959. Norman and Theressa moved to St. Louis and opened a grocery store in Webster Groves.

The call to home became too great and Norman and Theressa took their young children Clark Jay and Kandi to open the J & K Market in Broseley. The couple brought home a surprise bundle of joy named Penny to the store and soon after Norman contracted a rare lung infection and spent nearly a year in a special ward in the Memphis Veteran’s Administration hospital.

Norman, a man of incredible work ethic, worked odd jobs and picked peaches to support his family, then went to nursing school to become one of the first male nurses in Southeast Missouri. He worked at the John J. Pershing VA Medical Center for 25 years before he retired in 1996. The Ridenours moved to Kinder, before building the house at 402 S. Turnbaugh in Puxico in 1976 where Ridenour spent the rest of his life.

Ridenour was known for his quick and mischievous wit. He was the primary caregiver for his wife, Theressa, for nearly four years before her death in 2013. Of late, he was known for riding his little red scooter about town, and frequented Holloway’s Gas Mart and Bill’s Market in search of a cup of coffee.

Ridenour was the youngest and last surviving sibling of his sister Goldy and brothers Vernon, Louis, Eugene, Bob, and Quinton Ridenour. He is survived by his son Clark Jay Ridenour and wife Beverly, his daughter Kandi Ridenour Speer and her husband Dan and Penny Ridenour , as well as his grandchildren Anthony and Andrew Ridenour and Kelsey, Natalie, and Lyndsey Speer and his great-grandchildren Andon and Nevaeh Ridenour.

Visitation will be Wednesday May 24 at 6 p.m. the Morgan Sifford Funeral Home, 580 Highway 51 in Puxico;

His services will be held on Thursday at 1:30 p.m.

He will be interred with military honors at the Missouri State Veteran’s Cemetery in Bloomfield at 3 p.m.