Amador County – Former Assemblyman Norman S. Waters of Plymouth passed away this weekend.
Amador County Supervisor Richard Forster broke the news on TSPN TV News at noon Monday, Feb. 27. Forster said: “We heard this weekend that Norm Waters, our former Assemblyman passed away and really want to give our condolences,” not only “from myself, my family, but the whole Board of Supervisors, and the County of Amador. He was a good man and did a lot for our community.”
Waters was born July 1, 1925, in Plymouth. He married Dona Louis Geis, and together had five children: Mike, Fred, Bill, John and Tim. Waters served in the Army during World War II and had the nickname “Last Rancher,” according to Capitol Weekly.
Waters was a member of the Amador County Board of Supervisors in 1992, and was also a member of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s governing board. Norman S. Waters Park in Plymouth has a brother park by the same name in Elk Grove.
The California Journal in 1985 used Waters as a measure for the success of a legislator, saying that “Waters got his colleagues to approve 68 bills out of 110 introduced, for a batting average of 61.8 percent.”
In contrast, retired Senator H.L. Richardson, in 2006, writing for Gun Owners of California, wrote that the National Rifle Association campaigned against Waters in 1990. Richardson wrote that “in 1990, Assemblyman Norm Waters voted for the Connolly waiting period for long guns and private sales. Our campaign committee organized an independent effort that led to his defeat … the only defeat to be suffered by one of (then House Speaker) Willie Brown’s incumbents – ever.”
In a Feb. 24, 2012, letter to the Union Democrat entitled “Praise for Norm Waters, Bruce Cassasa of Dayton, Wyoming, wrote to the editor that “Norm told me, last week, he’s suffering from kidney failure and is on dialysis. At age 86, I am sure a ‘thank you’ from former constituents would do wonders to cheer him up.”
Waters, a Democrat, was first elected to the California Assembly in District 7 in 1975 and served for seven terms and 14 years, falling in his bid for re-election by a slim margin in 1990. Waters was Chairman of the Assembly Agricultural Committee, and his District 7 included Amador County, as well as Alpine, Calaveras, El Dorado, Mono and Tuolumne Counties, and portions of San Joaquin and Sacramento Counties.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
