Norma Junelle Sirotiak

Norma Junelle Sirotiak

Cedar Rapids

Norma Junelle Sirotiak passed away on May 26, 2023, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at the age of 97. She lived independently and stayed physically active until the day of her passing, tending to the home she lived in for 63 years.

She was born on March 31, 1926, in Laconia, N.H., to Floyd B. Hopson and Junelle (Brodie) Hopson. Norma grew up in Massena, N.Y., with her brothers Richard E. Hopson (Dick) and Floyd N. Hopson (Hop) and sister Evelyn H. Hopson (all deceased). She graduated from Massena High School in 1944 and obtained a BS in Physical Therapy from Boston University in 1948.

Her career as a physical therapist took her to Texas, where she worked extensively with patients of the polio epidemic. She later moved to Des Moines where she met and married John E. Sirotiak on April 17, 1954. Together they moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to start their family.

After John died in 1985, she continued working at Mercy Hospital until she was 78 and kept in touch with many of her former patients and coworkers. Norma loved her family, friends and neighbors and saved cards and mementos from them all. She was an avid reader and she considered the newspaper to be much like a book delivered to her door every day and read it cover to cover.

Norma’s service was held at Cedar Memorial on July 6, 2023. She has been put to rest at Fort Snelling veterans cemetery in Minnesota with her husband John. She is survived by her two sons, her daughter and four grandchildren.