The son of Gust and Anna Maki, Norman attended Ishpeming public schools and worked as an usher at the Butler Theatre for a time. On September 3, 1944, Gust, a lifelong Ishpeming resident, was killed by falling rock while working underground in the Mather Mine. In May of that year, Norman was called by the Marquette County draft board for examination and accepted for military duty. He graduated from Ishpeming High School on June 17, 1944 and entered the Army in July at which time his brother, Richard, was already a U.S. Army PFC.

The September 2, 1944 Daily Mining Journal wrote that Norman "has arrived at the Infantry Replacement Training Center, Camp Wolters, Texas, to begin his basic Army training." He was home for a Christmas furlough that year, giving no indication that he was about to go overseas.

On February 2, 1945 his mother Anna received a telegram from the War Department notifying her that here son Norman had been Killed in Action. According to the February 10, 1945 Ishpeming Iron Ore, Norman had gone into combat shortly after arriving in the European Theatre of Operations. Besides his mother and brother Richard, then a gunner on an Army Air Corps B-24 Liberator bomber crew, he left another brother, William, an Ishpeming High School student.

The February 24, 1945 Daily Mining Journal informed readers that a combined memorial service for Private Maki and Lieutenant Ralph Hannula would be held on Sunday morning, February 25, in the Bethel Lutheran Church, Ishpeming. As of March 27, 1945, Anna Maki had been informed that her son, Richard, was missing in action since an air mission over Germany on March 2, 1945.

According to the March 31, 1945 Ishpeming Iron Ore, Sgt. Richard Maki was a gunner on a B-24 Liberator bomber, and the flight from which he was reported missing was his first over enemy territory. Richard would be coming home, however. The May 26, 1945 Iron Ore revealed good news in an article entitled "Three Freed From Prison Camps." The American Red Cross had informed Anna that her son, Sgt. Richard Maki, had been released from the P. O. W. camp where he'd been held by the Germans. On September 22, 1945 the Iron Ore noted that Sgt. Richard G. Maki had arrived at the San Antonio district AAF Personnel Distribution Command. He would spend approximately two weeks at the redistribution station undergoing records and physical processing "for a discharge or redistribution to duty in this country."

These days Norman A Maki rests in the beautiful American Military Cemetery at Henri-Chapelle ... He is remembered and honored by his his entire family, by every visitor of the American Cemetery Normandy and by every visitor of the In Honored Glory website.

If you have any more information regarding Norman A Maki, or even pictures, then please make sure that you contact us as soon as possible. Thank you very much !

Special thanks to Norman's family and to Mrs Loraine Koski