Ricketts, Norma B. (Norma Baldwin)

Author and historian.

From the description of Norma B. Ricketts biography of Thomas and Elizabeth Rhoades, 1972. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 367425461

Biographical Information

Norma Baldwin Ricketts was born in 1921 in Holbrook, Arizona. In the early 1940s, her first job was with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where she worked on publicity for the Oscars and the movie industry in general. She resigned after a few years to fulfill a mission for the Church of Latter Day Saints, and then moved to Sacramento, CA. She married Monte Ricketts and continued her public relations work in a freelance capacity while raising three children. During the 1950s she also wrote a weekly column on the arts, and served as the music and drama critic for the Sacramento Union . She moved to Mesa, Arizona in 1988.

While researching her pioneer heritage, Ricketts discovered that there were Mormons living in California two years before Brigham Young's group arrived in Utah's Salt Lake Valley. This led her to research and write several articles and books on the Mormon presence in California; a special focus of her work was the Mormon Battalion and their descendants.

From the guide to the Norma B. Ricketts papers., 1881-2007, bulk 1966-2007, (The Bancroft Library)