NATCHITOCHES – A memorial service for Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame broadcaster Norm Fletcher,  whose seven decades in radio included 30 years as the voice of Northwestern State sports teams,  will be held Saturday at 10 a.m. at the First United Methodist Church of Natchitoches.
 
Fletcher, 81, a native of Natchitoches, died Dec. 14  after a brief illness. He donated his body to medical research.
 
Friends can offer memories and tributes to Fletcher via e-mail to the NormFletcherMemories@gmail.com address.
 
Fletcher was enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 2010 as he received the Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association.
 
In 2004 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the NSU Graduate "N" Club, the university's association of athletic letterwinners. Two years ago, the NSU broadcast booth in Turpin Stadium was named in his honor.
 
Along with his remarkable broadcasting career, Fletcher was a public servant, civic activist and elected official. He was elected three times as Natchitoches Parish sheriff, first in 1979.
 
For several years Fletcher spoke at the FBI Academy in Washington, D.C. on topics including efficiency and effectiveness of law enforcement operations.  An Air Force veteran, Fletcher was president of the Natchitoches Parish Chamber of Commerce, state chairman of the Louisiana Cultural Resources Commission in the 1960s, and was the volunteer City/Parish Civil Defense Director for 18 years before running successfully for sheriff.
 
Fletcher was instrumental in the John Wayne 1958 movie “The Horse Soldiers” being filmed in and around Natchitoches. He played the father of the groom in the popular 1989 motion picture “Steel Magnolias,” also filmed in and around Natchitoches.
 
Fletcher served in five decades as the "Voice of the Hall of Fame," lending his baritone delivery as the narrator for ceremonies and videotape. His stirring style ushered each inductee into the elite ranks of Hall of Fame membership, but it is only a part of his remarkable contribution to state sports history.
 
He was a prominent sportscaster in north Louisiana beginning in the late 1940s and continuing into the 1990s, and still was a contributor until entering the hospital in October. Fletcher was "Voice of the Demons" calling Northwestern State sports beginning at the age of 18 in 1949 until running successfully for sheriff, and he reassumed the NSU broadcasting role for two years in the early 1990s.
 
He hosted two weekly morning radio shows in Natchitoches and contributed to NSU sports coverage, while enjoying the work of two of his protégés, LSU Sports Network announcer Jim Hawthorne and Cox Sports Television lead announcer Lyn Rollins, whose broadcast careers began under Fletcher's guidance in Natchitoches.
 
From 1949-79, he broadcast high school sports, doing every Natchitoches High/Natchitoches Central football and basketball game, except for time spent in the U.S. Air Force. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Radio Service Far East Network in the 1950s as chief news and sports announcer. He broadcast major sports events throughout the Far East, including football, baseball and boxing.
 
For a quarter-century after he returned home to Natchitoches, he did either prep or college basketball game broadcasts five nights a week from mid-November until early March, and returned back to the studio early the following mornings to anchor the local news and sports reports and a talk show. Broadcasting sports including football, basketball, baseball, boxing, boat races and even two Gulf States Conference track and field championship meets, his total of play-by-play events was over 4,000 broadcasts. As co-owner of KNOC-AM and KDBH-FM, Fletcher helped launch the broadcast careers of dozens of NSU students, including Hawthorne and Rollins.
 
Fletcher became only the fifth broadcaster to enter the Hall as a Distinguished Service Award winner, joining Hap Glaudi and Buddy Diliberto of New Orleans, LSU's John Ferguson and 2009 recipient Bob Griffin of Shreveport. Fletcher and Ferguson are the only two play-by-play broadcasters to be honored.
 
He was the first "Mr. Natchitoches High School", serving as president of the student body his senior year and was active in all phases of extracurricular activities, including football and basketball.  He attended Northwestern State and the University of Southwestern Louisiana.
 
Serving in the Air Force during the Korean Conflict, Fletcher gained attention as the news editor and the chief news and sportscaster of the Far East Network (Armed Forces Radio Service) with headquarters in Tokyo for over two  and a half years, covering stories throughout the Far East.  At that time he did part-time work for NBC with interviews of Adlai Stevenson, former Vice-President Richard Nixon, Gen. Mark Clark and others.  During that time, his associates later became some of the major network and Hollywood personalities, but Fletcher opted to come home. His news coverage also included tours of battle throughout the Far East.
 
A former co-owner of KNOC AM/FM in Natchitoches, he was also a builder and co-owner of the first cable television system in Natchitoches and one of the first in Louisiana.
 
In 1979, he wrote the words and music of "The Cane River Country Land," which the City Council adopted as the City's official song.
 
He became the youngest Natchitoches Parish Chamber of Commerce President at the age of 27, and the only person to serve in that capacity for three straight years.  In the 1960's he was tabbed by Gov. Jimmie Davis as the volunteer State Chairman of the La. Cultural Resources commission.  Fletcher also served as the volunteer City/Parish Civil Defense Director for 18 years and during that time organized an effective organization that ranked among the top 10 percent in the nation.  He also served for three years as president of the state Chambers of Commerce Association.
 
He was named Louisiana's Number One Radio Newscaster in 1955; Young Man of the Year (Jaycees) in 1958; Chamber of Commerce Man of the Year in 1960; American Legion, Post 10, Man of the Year in 1978; became a Rotary Foundation International Paul Harris Fellow in 1984 and in 2010 was named a Natchitoches Treasure.
 
Fletcher was an active member of the Natchitoches First United Methodist Church, where he taught the Senior High Sunday School Class for 23 years, and later the Senior Class.
 
An outstanding public speaker, he spoke at the National Sheriff's Association Convention in Las Vegas in 1981; was the keynote speaker at the La. Police Jury Association Convention in 1986 and the La. Sheriff's Convention in 1984.
 
He was preceded in death by his father, Guy K. Fletcher and mother Erie B. Fletcher; his only brother Laird C. Fletcher; and his oldest nephew, Craig Fletcher.
 
His survivors include the families of the two other nephews, Norman Hillman Fletcher of Fort Worth, Texas and Guy Fletcher of Natchitoches; a godson, Norman Gene Weldon of Salt Lake City.
 
The family has requested that  donations be made to the Natchitoches Humane Society "Animal Shelter" or the Youth Department of the  Natchitoches First United Methodist Church.