Audrey Norton was born in
Great Falls, Montana to Lauraine (née Greenman) and Joseph Bennett. At three years old she became deaf from spinal meningitis. Two years later her parents divorced and soon after she and her mother moved to St. Paul, Minnesota. Her mother enrolled her at the W. Roby Allen School in Faribault, Minnesota. The Allen School used the
oralism method that taught speech and lip reading and did not permit the use of sign language. Audree's mother learned that if Audree was to attend Gallaudet College (now university) she would have to attend the
Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf (MSAD) that was located across the street from the Allen School. Once at MSAD Audree flourished finally able to use sign language. A 1952 graduate of
Gallaudet University, she was one of the founding members of the
National Theatre of the Deaf. In 1974, she was the first Deaf person to earn a master's degree in Rhetoric from
California State University, East Bay. She performed one of
Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poems to music on the television series
An Experiment in Television. She also performed in episodes of
Family Affair,
The Man and the City,
Mannix and
The Streets of San Francisco. In 1967, she was the first deaf actor to have a photograph featured in
Time magazine. In 1978, she was the center of a controversy towards Deaf actors and actresses. Norton auditioned to appear in an
ABC Afterschool Special titled ''Mom and Dad Can't Hear Me'', but was told by the casting director that she could not have the part because he would rather have people who can speak. Norton complained to the
Screen Actors Guild, which launched protests by deaf people in the United States. After this incident, Norton never performed on television again. Audree and Kenneth Norton were married for sixty-three years and had three children: Nikki Rexroat (Gary), Kurt Norton, and Dane Norton; two grandchildren: Tessa Bailey (née Rexroat) Paine (Justin) and Travis Alexander Norton Rexroat (Sophia Pellicoro); and two great-grandsons: Wesley Draper Paine and William Bennett Paine. ==Filmography==