Audree Lauraine Norton (January 13, 1927 – April 22, 2015) was a

deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an Audiology, audiological condition. In this context it ...

actress and educator. She was born in

Great Falls, Montana Great Falls is the third most populous city in the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Cascade County. The population was 60,442 according to the 2020 census. The city covers an area of and is the principal city of the Great Falls, M ...

and raised in

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

Biography

Audree's parents were Lauraine (née Greenman) and Joseph Bennett. At three years old she became Deaf from spinal meningitis. Two years later her parents divorced and soon after she and her mother moved to St. Paul, Minnesota. Her mother enrolled her at the W. Roby Allen School in Faribault, Minnesota. The Allen School used the

oralism Oralism is the education of deaf students through oral language by using lip reading, speech, and mimicking the mouth shapes and breathing patterns of speech.Through Deaf Eyes. Diane Garey, Lawrence R. Hott. DVD, PBS (Direct), 2007. Oralism cam ...

method that taught speech and lip reading and did not permit the use of sign language. Audree's mother learned that if Audree was to attend Gallaudet College (now university) she would have to attend the

Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf The Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf (MSAD) is a public residential school serving deaf children in Minnesota, United States. It is one of two Minnesota State Academies in Faribault and operated by the state for particular student popula ...

(MSAD) that was located across the street from the Allen School. Once at MSAD Audree flourished finally able to use sign language. A 1952 graduate of

Gallaudet University Gallaudet University ( ) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. for the education of the deaf and hard of hearing. It was founded in 1864 as a grammar school for both deaf and blind children. It was the first sc ...

, she was one of the founding members of the

National Theatre of the Deaf The National Theatre of the Deaf (NTD) is a Connecticut-based theatre company founded in 1967, and is the oldest theatre company in the United States with a continuous history of domestic and international touring, as well as producing original wor ...

. In 1974, she was the first Deaf person to earn a master's degree in Rhetoric from

California State University, East Bay California State University, East Bay (Cal State East Bay, CSU East Bay, or CSUEB) is a public university in Hayward, California. The university is part of the 23-campus California State University system and offers 136 undergraduate and 60 pos ...

. She performed one of

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Elizabeth Barrett Browning (née Moulton-Barrett; 6 March 1806 – 29 June 1861) was an English poet of the Victorian era, popular in Britain and the United States during her lifetime. Born in County Durham, the eldest of 12 children, Elizabet ...

's poems to music on the television series ''An Experiment in Television''. She also performed in episodes of ''

Family Affair ''Family Affair'' is an American sitcom starring Brian Keith and Sebastian Cabot that aired on CBS from September 12, 1966, to March 4, 1971. The series explored the trials of well-to-do engineer and bachelor Bill Davis (Keith) as he attempte ...

'', ''

The Man and the City ''The Man and the City'' is an American drama series which aired on ABC as part of its Fall 1971 lineup from September 15, 1971 to January 5, 1972. Anthony Quinn starred as Thomas Jefferson Alcala, the long-term Hispanic mayor of a major but uni ...

'', ''

Mannix ''Mannix'' is an American detective television series that ran from 1967 to 1975 on CBS. It was created by Richard Levinson and William Link, and developed by executive producer Bruce Geller. The title character, Joe Mannix, is a private inves ...

'' and ''

The Streets of San Francisco ''The Streets of San Francisco'' is a television crime drama filmed on location in San Francisco and produced by Quinn Martin, Quinn Martin Productions, with the first season produced in association with Warner Bros. Television (QM produced the ...

''. In 1967, she was the first deaf actor to have a photograph featured in

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

magazine. In 1978, she was the center of a controversy towards Deaf actors and actresses. Norton auditioned to appear in an

ABC Afterschool Special ''ABC Afterschool Special'' is an American television anthology series that aired on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from October 4, 1972, to January 23, 1997, usually in the late afternoon on weekdays. Most episodes were dramatically presen ...

titled ''Mom and Dad Can't Hear Me'', but was told by the casting director that she could not have the part because he would rather have people who can speak. Norton complained to the

Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...

, which launched protests by deaf people in the United States. After this incident, Norton never performed on television again. She was the lead actress for the Kodak TV commercial "Memories", which was directed by

Stuart Hagmann Stuart R. Hagmann (born in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin on September 2, 1942) is a television and film director primarily active from 1968 to 1977. His television work includes episodes of the series '' Mission: Impossible'' and ''Mannix''. In film ...

. It won a Clio Award for Best Commercial of the Year (1974). In 2012, Norton received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Gallaudet University. In 2015, Norton died in

Fremont, California Fremont is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. Located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area, Fremont has a population of 230,504 as of 2020, making it the fourth List of cities and towns in the San Fra ...

. Audree was married to Kenneth Norton for sixty-three years. She had three children: Nikki (née Norton) Rexroat (married to Gary Rexroat), Kurt Norton, and Dane Norton; two grand children: Tessa Bailey (née Rexroat) Paine (married to Justin Paine) and Travis Alexander Norton Rexroat (married to Sophia Pellicoro); and two great-grandsons: Wesley Draper Paine and William Bennett Paine.

Filmography

NBC Experiment in Television ''NBC Experiment in Television'' is an American experimental television show broadcast on NBC from 1967 to 1971. The format of the show was an anthology series and it usually aired on Sunday afternoons. Many of the episodes were either dramatic pi ...

(1967) (National Theater of the Deaf) *

(1968) (Jody Wellman) (The Silent Cry) *

(1970) (Dr. Robinson) (The Language of Love) *

(1971) (Ann Larrabee) (Hands of Love) *

(1975) (Deaf Witness, uncredited) (Web of Lies)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Norton, Audree American deaf actresses Gallaudet University alumni 20th-century American actresses 1927 births 2015 deaths People from Great Falls, Montana Actresses from Montana Actresses from Minnesota 21st-century American women Deaf educators