NormaKay Jenni Irish

NormaKay Jenni Irish passed away peacefully at home, grateful for her long life and surrounded by family on Sunday, April 6, 2025, at the age of 90. 

True to her spirit, she defied all medical predictions and remained committed to her goal of living life to its fullest. NormaKay was diagnosed with two types of stage-four cancer in April 2024, which were her fourth (and fifth) rounds of cancer over 25 years.  

As a teacher and librarian, NormaKay enjoyed a quote by teacher and astronaut Sally Ride that was prominently posted in her kitchen: “I touch the future—I teach.”  

NormaKay was born on 18 January 1935 in Lewistown, Montana, in the middle of a blizzard to Albert “Abe” Joseph Jenni and A. (Almona) Blanche Killingsworth Jenni. Their third child, NormaKay was the only daughter, with older brothers Olind and Joe and younger brother Tom. 

She grew up on the expansive farm and ranch owned and managed by her parents along Cottonwood Creek about nine miles west of Lewistown. NormaKay fondly remembered biking and riding horseback to the one-room school and many gatherings of the extensive Jenni families living along Cottonwood Creek, Beaver Creek, and the surrounding area.   

NormaKay attended the Jenni country school and the Lewistown Junior High and graduated from the Fergus County High School in Lewistown. She was active in 4-H from an early age through college serving as a junior leader, camp leader, and others. 

As a teen and until she graduated from high school, NormaKay was a member of Theta Rho, a service organization for girls linked to the Odd Fellows and Rebekah. As a junior in high school, she was selected for Montana Girls State, one of two girls selected..

A strong believer in the power of education, NormaKay pursued several degrees throughout her life. She graduated from Montana State College (now University) in Bozeman with a BS in Home Economics in 1957. 

While in college, she pledged freshman year to the Phi Beta Phi sorority and remained a lifelong member. She was a member of the rodeo club and also enjoyed downhill skiing with friends nearby at Bridger ski resort. 

In 1959 and the early 1960s, NormaKay took summer classes to qualify for a library endorsement from Eastern Montana College (EMC, now MSU Billings). While living in Billings in the 1980s, NormaKay took graduate classes and did an independent research project on how parents’ reading habits impact their children’s reading habits. She received her Master’s degree in education in 1991 from EMC.  

While working in Lewistown in 1963, NormaKay met E. Richard (Dick) Isern. They married in 1964 and welcomed their daughter, Jennifer, a few years later.  NormaKay and Dick divorced in 1976. 

NormaKay married Norm Irish, Sr., in Lewistown in 1977, and the family moved to Cody, Wyoming, where their son, Brian, was born. The family returned to Montana and settled in Billings in 1980. NormaKay’s husband Norm passed away in 2015.  

NormaKay thoroughly enjoyed helping students. For her first job after college, she moved to Lodge Grass to work as the Home Economics teacher. When the school superintendent moved to Red Lodge, he asked four of his top teachers to join him, including NormaKay. 

In the 1960s and early 1970s, she taught Home Economics in Red Lodge, served as the Fergus County extension agent with the Montana Extension Service, and taught Home Economics in the Moore High School and also at St Leo’s Catholic school in Lewistown. 

In the 1970s, NormaKay worked as head of the Lewistown Public Library, as secretary for the Fergus Country youth probation officer, as librarian for the District Judge in the County Courthouse, and as medical librarian at the Central Montana Medical Center. For several years in the 1970s, NormaKay served on the Montana State Library Advisory Council and was recognized for her service by the State of Montana and the Governor’s office. 

NormaKay resumed professional work in the mid-1980s as librarian at EMC’s Student Curriculum Resource Center in the Education Department. In the late 1980s, she worked for two years as librarian for the junior high and high school in Riverton and Ethete, Wyoming. 

After returning to Billings, NormaKay worked as a substitute teacher in many roles with the Billings School District 2. In her last professional role, NormaKay served as librarian for nine years at Senior High School until she retired in 2001.  

NormaKay was very active with her own family, her parents and their care, her siblings, cousins, and other Jenni and Killingsworth family. She was known as the family historian--- remembering many family stories and sharing with younger generations throughout the extended family.  

NormaKay organized the first Jenni family reunion in 1982 in Lewistown with other cousins and elders to celebrate 100 years of the Jenni family settling in Montana. She organized several other Jenni reunions, and later involved her daughter, son, and cousins to continue the tradition.

NormaKay believed in the importance of community, and she actively participated in multiple professional, social, religious, and other organizations. 

After college graduation, she joined American Association of University Women, AAUW, in 1957 and served in multiple roles including Montana state AAUW president (2000-2002). NormaKay received the Billings AAUW “Named Gift” Award (2002) and the 50-year AAUW “Gold Member” Award, while remaining an active AAUW member until her passing. NormaKay enjoyed AAUW for their programs and projects, fellowship with like-minded professional women, and the friendships she made.  

NormaKay supported Red Cross projects over many decades through donations and as an occasional volunteer. In the 2000s, NormaKay became an even more active volunteer with the Red Cross in Billings and the surrounding area for over five years. 

After massive flooding in New Jersey in July 2004, she traveled with a Red Cross team to volunteer with relief efforts. When Hurricane Katrina hit Biloxi, Mississippi, in late August 2005, NormaKay traveled there to help coordinate relief efforts and stayed in a local elementary school with other volunteers and evacuees.    

NormaKay also enjoyed other organizations including the First United Methodist Church, United Methodist (UM) Women, UM Circle, UM Bells, Billings Line Dancing Group, Yellowstone Valley Astronomy Association, and the Global Grannies travel group (now called Gals Going Global). 

While NormaKay relished life and culture, music always played a key role in her life. She began piano lessons at age eight and enjoyed playing piano throughout her life. In the 1960s, she taught herself to play the organ. 

NormaKay was a well-known crafter and devoted time to knitting, sewing, crochet, and embroidery. She started embroidery while recovering from typhoid fever in the Lewistown hospital as a 10-year-old girl. She sewed many beautiful outfits for herself while in 4-H and sewed for her children’s clothes for many years. She always had a bag of hats, pot-holders, scarves, and other items to share with family and friends and with the Billings Clinic hat tree, among other charities. 

NormaKay enjoyed baking and cooking for family and friends. Each summer for many years, she served as a judge for the culinary arts and needlework in the Philipps County Fair in Malta and the Musselshell County Fair in Roundup. She also served as judge and clerk for culinary arts at the MontanaFair in Billings for several years. 

After retirement, NormaKay bought a cabin on the Stillwater River near the Beartooth Mountains and during frequent visits, relaxed with the river flowing by the back deck, seeing wildlife and the rugged scenery, and talking with neighbor friends.

An avid traveler, NormaKay took her first overseas trip to Hawaii during her first year working in 1957. In 1958, she travelled to Puerto Rico to visit a cousin and her family stationed at the US military base there. 

NormaKay continued traveling in the US and internationally for conferences and trainings and with family, friends, and the Global Grannies. She made many trips to Missouri to visit her mother’s relatives and to California to visit her older brother and his family near San Jose. 

With Global Grannies, she visited New Orleans, Kenya, and Ireland and enjoyed a Mediterranean cruise and a Nordic cruise.  She took many trips often with her daughter and/or son: Calgary, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France, Togo, India, Vietnam, a cruise on the Colombia River, floating the Missouri River, Hawaii fifty years after her first trip, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, multiple trips to Washington DC to visit her daughter, trips to Medora, and an Alaska cruise.

NormaKay’s primary caregivers were Brian, Jennifer, and Tirna – her immediate family – who cared for her at her own home for the past 11 months. 

Blessings and thanks to the nurses, aides, family, and friends who helped her live with dignity and grace. 

Special thanks for the desserts, cards, flowers, visits, calls, and piano sessions from dear friends and family over her final months. Aide Michelle, Nurse Michaela, and Nurse Supervisor Anna from Riverstone were so kind, thoughtful, responsive, and caring. Cornerstone Care management and aides provided helpful care for NormaKay and coordinated a complex daily schedule efficiently.  

NormaKay is preceded in death by her parents, Abe and Blanche Jenni; husband, Norm Irish, Sr; brothers Joe Jenni and Tom Jenni; stepson Norm Irish, Jr.; granddaughter Marie Langford Smith; grandson Nate Irish; and great-granddaughter Olivia Ingram. 

She is survived by her daughter, Jennifer; daughter-in-law Tirna; son Brian; brother Olind Jenni in Gilroy California; stepdaughter Candy (Dan) Debar and their family in the Billings area;stepson Eric (Nancy) Isern and their family in Reno, Nevada and California; stepson Kurt Isern in Alaska;, stepdaughter Norma Jean Irish (Todd Wofford) in Belgrade; stepson George Irish in Billings; step daughter-in-law Kathy Gordon (Jerrold) in Billings; grandchildren Dustin Depriest, Shealynn Ingram (Chris), and Jeremiah Irish; and great-granddaughter Lauren Marie Sisk. 

NormaKay cherished her extended family, including her nieces Lynn Jenni Rodriguez (Ben) in Las Vegas Nevada; Chris Jenni in Denver, Colorado; Mary Jenni in Lewistown, and Susan Jenni in Phoenix Arizona; nephews Doug Jenni (Diane) in Reno, Nevada; Craig Jenni (Mary) in Watsonville, California; Bob Jenni (Kelly) in Lewistown; and Roger Jenni (Cindy) in Las Vegas, Nevada, and their children. 

NormaKay nurtured life-long friendships with several close cousins from the Jenni and Killingsworth families in Lewistown; Billings; Dade County, Missouri; Sequim, Washington; and across the country. 

NormaKay enjoyed many friends in Lewistown and Billings from her active community life. She would give a warm hug to each of you if she could, just one more time, and she would want to thank each of you who shared time together and recognized her resilience and love of life. 

A Celebration of Life service will be organized on May 2, 2025 at 11 a.m. at the First United Methodist Church (FUMC) in Billings, Montana. The service will be available to watch livestream through the FUMC Facebook page.  

Burial of ashes will be a private family ceremony at a later date. 

NormaKay loved bright colors and sewing beautiful clothes, so please wear colors (no black!) to her service. 

To honor her passion and life’s work, please read a book – and even better – read to a child, a friend, and/or an elder. 

If you would like to make a memorial to NormaKay, please consider donating to your local public library to help promote access to education and reading for all.