"When I was about five years old I developed an ear infection which resulted in mastoiditis and I can remember when the specialist who was recommended by our family doctor came to our home at 603 Garfield Avenue in Jersey City, New Jersey to examine me, and my mother's tearful reaction when he told her that I would have to be hospitalized and operated on to drain the abscessed ear. …"
Death of his mother: "Mrs. Mary Burke Norton, 59, of 603 Garfield Avenue, died yesterday at the Medical Center of a ruptured appendix. She was admitted to the hospital August 31. Mrs. Norton, a communicant of Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church, is survived by her husband, Thomas P. Norton, Sr., and three sons, Thomas; Vincent and James Norton."