You can find him at the Huddle House restaurant in Dexter Tuesday mornings having coffee with his friends. His family will tell you he is a pretty good domino player as well, as he regularly plays with his daughter, Lee Hufford, and boyfriend. It may be difficult to catch him at home because he prefers to be out and about.
Ninety-four-year-old Norval Worley of Dexter is a U.S. Navy and World War II veteran. He has a quick wit, kind smile and can tell you of his time in the service as if it were yesterday.
He attended school through the eighth grade at Aid, then completed two weeks of high school at Bloomfield. His parents didn't have the money for high school so he made the decision to drop out. He would eventually be drafted and join the navy.
"I wanted to join the army, I thought. Well. I got there, they just put me in the navy," Worley said. "I am glad they did."
Worley's two younger brothers would enlist as well. One joined the army; the other went to the army air corp.
Once in the service, Worley didn't complain about meals, stating, "You always had something to eat; we had good meals."
Worley served 23 months and saw action in the Pacific during World War II. He served on a destroyer, which was referred to as a tin can. This reference was due to how flimsy and how little it took to sink one. The destroyer Worley served on was the USS Putnam.
Worley's story almost had a different ending. He was first assigned to another ship, however he can't recall the name. Worley never boarded the ship. He was one of eight men transferred to the Putnam because the first ship had a full crew. Worley would later learn that first ship was sunk and tragically all hands would be lost.
"We were just lucky they pulled us off," said Worley. "There were eight of us."
Worley stated the Putnam was stuck twice by Japanese Kamikaze planes. Fortunately for Worley and his shipmates these were only glancing blows that knocked some guns off.
Worley worked a 5 - inch gun during his time on the Putnam. He loaded shells for a long time, he stated. The ammunition was stored down below, he said A powder case was loaded followed by a shell. The powder case weighed 28 pounds and shells weighed 54 pounds.
Worley explained the man who put the shell in would then pull a lever to push the powder and shell into the gun.
"If it didn't go off, you yank it back out and hope it didn't delay (go off)," said Worley.
Everyone slept near their station in the event they had to get up and begin firing quickly. The bunks were stacked two high. Worley was on the top bunk. Each sailor had a foot locker under the bottom bunk. He further stated that during rough weather they slept on their stomach and held on to bars at the front of their beds to avoid rolling out due to the movement of the ship.
"Below us was a big watertight door that went into the freezer," said Worley. "So if that door was open and you rolled out of bed you might go all the way to the bottom (of the ship)."
Worley said they slept in their clothes most of the time because they were called out two or three times a night.
"They sound an alarm and you have got to scoot," Worley said.
The Putnam saw action in Iwo Jima, Okinawa and the Philippines. Once the war was over the Putnam was one of six destroyers that escorted the USS Missouri while the formal surrender was signed between the U.S. and Japan. However this was delayed a few days due to a typhoon.
They stayed anchored off the coast of Japan for three months after the war near Wakayama. Worley said this was a small town with maybe a half dozen cars.
"They had a street car; the Japanese would ride on that thing, top of it and in it," said Worley.
They were allowed to go ashore if they wished. Worley stated when they went in they were all on their gun stations expecting some problems, but there were no problems. Despite the recent end to the war, Worley said, there were no problems between the Japanese people and the American soldiers.
"We went in the houses like we owned the place; they didn't care," Worley said. "They kept a clean house."
Worley said anytime they had a chance to go ashore they would pile in a long boat, probably putting more men in it than it was designed to carry.
"They would load that thing down and you would think it was going to sink," Worley chuckled.
The trip home provided a detour as they were not allowed to disembark at San Francisco. They told the men aboard the USS Putnam they would have to disembark in New York. This meant they would have to make an additional trip south and travel through the Panama Canal.
"That was something to see going through the Panama," said Worley. "It takes quite awhile to go through there."
A ship must pass through multiple locks in which the water level is raised or lowered to allow the ship to pass through to the next lock.
After the war, Worley returned to Southeast Missouri. The first year after his return he worked on the family farm. After that he went to work at Ray Street Garage in Bloomfield. This allowed him to participate in a government training program where he could receive pay as he trained.
After the garage sold a few times, he went to work at the shoe factory in Dexter, eventually going to work at Dexter Automotive until he retired.
During his time at Ray Street Garage, he would meet and marry his first wife, Eaphna. This union produced four children and would last 35 years. He would lose Eaphna to cancer when she was only 54.
About eight months later he would marry his second wife, Pansy. Worley's family had known Pansy's family for some time. Pansy's first husband had been deceased 10 years. Her children had gone to school with Worley's children. Pansy went to Worley's children and told them that if there was any problem they wouldn't marry.
"There was no problem," said Lee Hufford, Worley's daughter. "She was one of the best things to ever happen to him."
This union also lasted 35 years. With his children grown he and his second wife were able to travel. They would spend a great deal of time camping and attending bluegrass festivals, traveling as far as Arizona to spend the summer or to Texas to camp. A favorite spot became Redman Creek at Wappapello Lake.
"We would stay there two or three weeks at a time," said Worley.
Pansy decided not to tow the camper any longer after a mishap on the way home from a camping trip. While driving through Texas, Pansy tried to adjust her seat belt and lost control of the camper. The camper rolled on to its side but the truck stayed upright, although the back end slightly elevated due to still being connected to the camper. Fortunately the Worleys were uninjured, but the camper was lost. From then on Pansy had Norval handle the driving when they had a camper in tow.
After Pansy's passing Worley still lives in his Dexter home, but a medical scare almost changed that.
Last April, Worley woke up one morning and didn't know who he was or where he was. He also was unable to walk. After talking to him on the phone, Hufford, who was five hours away at the time, called her daughter, who was a nurse, to check on him. Her daughter arrived and had an ambulance take him to Cape Girardeau.
There he underwent brain surgery. He had blood on the outside of his brain that pushed it a half inch off center. His daughter said the doctor told her his age saved him. An older person's brain shrinks, therefore leaving just enough room for it when the blood formed.
The next morning he knew who he was and could talk as if it never happened. According to his daughter, he had some speech problems for about a month. Certain words gave him problems. Other than a little short-term memory loss, he is no worse for wear.
Although he has sold his camper, he hasn't totally decided against buying another one. But he admits with a ramp on his truck for his scooter he uses part time in stores, it would be difficult to pull a trailer.
Worley and his daughter have plans to attend some bluegrass festivals in the near future, but whatever else he decides sitting around the house won't be high on the list.