Norris Church Mailer
Norris Church Mailer (born Barbara Jean Davis, January 31, 1949, in Atkins, Arkansas – November 21, 2010, in Brooklyn Heights, New York City, New York)[1] ) was an American artist, actress, model, and author of several books. Her publications include the memoir, 'A Ticket to the Circus' and the novels Cheap Diamonds and Windchill Summer. She was the mother of two children and stepmother of Norman Mailer's five children.
Originally from Atkins, Arkansas, Norris Church Mailer had successful careers in several fields. In the beginning, Norris started as a pickle factory worker and left the factory to go to college at Arkansas Polytechnic College. She was at one point an art teacher, but she also was a successful model for the Wilhelmina modeling agency. She held several exhibits featuring her art and also acted in several movies, including Ragtime (1981) and The Executioner's Song (1982), as well performing on the television soap opera, All My Children.
Norris Church Mailer's near 33-year marriage to Norman Mailer is often the focus of reviews about her and her life. She described Norman Mailer as "the Henry Higgins to my Eliza Doolittle." Norris defended Norman Mailer against critics who claimed he was a misogynist and sought out his advice on drafts of her novels. "A Ticket to the Circus" chronicles her relationship with Mailer.
In 2004, Wilkes University in Pennsylvania established the Norris Mailer Church Fellowship in creative writing in her honor. She died in 2010 of complications from gastrointestinal cancer.