Norris Church Mailer

Photo courtesy of the Norris Church Mailer Estate.

Norris Church Mailer (born Barbara Jean Davis, January 31, 1949, Arkansas – died November 21, 2010, in Brooklyn Heights, New York City) 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.

Originally from Atkins, Arkansas, Norris Church Mailer had successful careers in various fields. Her first job was at a pickle factory. After graduating from Arkansas Polytechnic College, she became an art teacher and, later, a successful model for the Wilhelmina modeling agency. She held several one-woman shows featuring her paintings and also acted in television and features films, including Ragtime (1981) and The Executioner's Song (1982), as well as performing on the television soap opera, All My Children.

Norris Church Mailer's near 33-year marriage to her second husband, Norman Mailer, is frequently the focus of reviews about her life. She described Mailer as "the Henry Higgins to my Eliza Doolittle", often seeking his advice on drafts of her novels and defending him against critics who claimed he was misogynistic. A Ticket to the Circus in part chronicles her relationship with Mailer. She was the mother of two children and stepmother of author Norman Mailer's five children.

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.

• Contributions
• Tributes to Norris Church Mailer

Works Cited

• Italie, Hillel (November 22, 2010). "Norris Mailer; her memoir tells of life as author's 6th wife". Boston Globe. New York.
• Berger, Joseph (November 22, 2010). "Norris Church Mailer, Artist and Ally, Dies at 61". New York Times. New York.