Lena was the youngest of four children of August Dondeville and Alice Morgan. She was born October 20, 1894 in St. Louis Missouri and grew up in Memphis, Tennessee where her parents moved shortly after her birth. Lena met William Norwood through her brother, Will. Her future husband had been working with her other brother, James, as a paperhanger and painter. William Norwood was born in Carrollton, Mississippi on December 14, 1894.

Lena married William Norwood and fraternal twin daughters, Lena and Lenore, were born on January 15, 1920 in Memphis, Tennessee. Lena was an excellent seamstress and taught her daughters how to sew, embroider, and to do handwork. They moved to Greenville, Mississippi in September 1927 because William was looking for work and thought with the big Mississippi flood that he might find it there. The family spent a short period of time in Drew, and then moved to Roundaway where Lena died in May 1947. In March 1948, William Norwood moved to Greenville and lived there until his death in January 1968.

In July 1940, Lenora (Nora) married James Cornelius Boswell from Mississippi and they had one daughter, Shawn Alice, born May 27, 1941. They were divorced, and in 1962 she married Earl Nicks who was in the air force. They moved to Florida, Georgia, and Nashville, Tennessee before they were also divorced. She then returned to live in Memphis.

Her daughter, Shawn, married Bill Renaldo who was in the Navy. They had five children, Teresa Ann, Christopher Damon, Perry Anthony, Michelle, and Maria Angela. They were divorced and she married her second husband, Charles Brown from West Virginia, in Jacksonville, Florida. He had two daughters from a previous marriage, Karen Jean and Sharon Louise. They reside in Memphis.

Lena eloped to Hernando, Mississippi with Adolphus Joseph Altemari, a woodworker and cabinetmaker, in November 1940. A.J. had an aunt that lived in Memphis and they decided to take up residence there. In the late 1950's they moved to Houston, Texas. Lena and A.J. had three children, Margaret, born in 1943, Anthony, and Michael.

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