Norris, Randall Allen

Randall Allen Norris, 46, husband to Terri (Thurnau) Norris, cherished son to (the late) George and Velma (Luke) Norris and younger brother to Kathleen “Kathy” Norris Allen, passed away after a courageous battle with lung cancer on Aug. 6, 2012.

Randall was born Sept. 2, 1965, grew up in Central City, Iowa and made his home in Lee's Summit, Mo.

Randall lived life to the fullest during his too short life. He graduated in a class of 64 in 1983, having participated in speech and drama, played the saxophone in all three school bands and played on the football, basketball and golf teams. He went to Iowa State University, graduating in 1988, with a BA in speech communication where he was president of the college-owned cable channel. He worked his way around the country and up in market size at various cable and television stations. By the time he made it to Kansas City, he had amassed enough knowledge and vision to start his own small advertising agency in late 2003 and successfully ran that business even through his initial cancer treatments into early 2012.

Randall met Terri in 2001 and they were married on Oct. 15, 2005. By this time, they were restoring an older home in Kansas City, spending almost every spare hour there they were not working. They learned many skills: tuck pointing the foundation, soldering piping, putting in windows, glass block, stucco, sheet rock, wiring, plumbing and more. This was a labor of love and gave Randall great joy.

Randall purchased an office building in 2008 that enabled him to expand his business. Since it was an older building with historical significance some restoration began. His love for the sense of accomplishment of doing it himself helped him to fill up almost every spare moment.

Randall worked very hard, and played hard too. Favorite pastimes were participating in fantasy baseball and football leagues made up of mostly college friends. These leagues have been in existence for over 20 years, giving ‘owners' the opportunity to maintain close friendships. He loved the strategy involved in the games and brought home the baseball trophy five times and football once. He organized volleyball teams and also enjoyed social games of darts and pool and was quite competitive.

Most friends and acquaintances will remember qualities like his loyalty, giving nature, perseverance and patience toward achieving any goal, competitiveness, wit, faith, hope, passion and ability to admit he was wrong. Terri remains ever grateful for the short time she received his undying love and dedication, compassion, support and commitment.

Visitation will be held at Langsford Funeral Home in Lee's Summit from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday. Funeral services will be held at Country Club United Methodist Church on Saturday, Aug. 11, at 10:30 a.m. Burial will be at Green Lawn Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, Terri asks for donations in Randall's memory to one of two foundations. The NavigateCancer Foundation provided tremendous guidance, education and comfort during Randall's battle with cancer through a dedicated nurse navigator.  Warm blankets are very comforting to a cancer patient undergoing treatments or procedures. We found an angel in our doctor at the Pain Clinic at St. Joseph, along with some of his colleagues. We discovered the clinic did not have a blanket warmer which would have provided extra comfort to Randall during one of his last procedures before succumbing to the side effects of his cancer.   Please honor Randall and help others by donating to one of these worthwhile foundations.

Published Aug. 10, 2012 in The Gazette