Kicking it with his mom on May 4, to celebrate her 102nd birthday, Chuck Norris posted a heartfelt message honoring the woman he says is “so full of life that she might make it another 100 years!”
Chuck, who turned 83 in March, writes in a
Born in 1940 and growing up in a small town in Oklahoma, Chuck grew up watching stars like John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and Hopalong Cassidy, so it’s not surprising he ended up being one of Hollywood’s all-time greatest action stars.
When he graduated high school in 1958, Norris served with the United States Air Force, and was stationed at Osan Air Base in South Korea. He joined as an air policeman and planned to train as security police.
His time in the Air Force would change the direction of his life for the better.
It was there he was given the nickname “Chuck,” and it’s also where he picked up his mad martial arts skills, earning a black belt in Tang Soo Do, a form of Korean karate.
After his service in South Korea, Norris was transferred to an air force base in Riverside County, California, where he continued to serve as an air policeman until he was discharged in 1962 with the rank of airman first class.
On the waiting list to be a police officer, he opened a martial arts studio in Torrance, California, where he then lived. His success as a martial artist was exploding, and his studios expanding. Practicing himself, he won his first title in 1968, and held the title of Karate World Champion for six years, retiring in 1974.
In this time, while training celebrities in martial arts, he met Bruce Lee, American martial artist and actor, which led to Chuck’s breakout role as Lee’s nemesis in the film The Way of the Dragon (1972).
Norris found sweeping global success–his incredible agility and strength thrilling fans–after landing lead roles in Breaker! Breaker! (1977) and Good Guys Wear Black (1978).
When visiting the set of the hit show Walker, Texas Ranger (1993 to 2001), Wilma said of her son, “The greatest that there is…He really is. He was always my sweet one when he was small.”
Chuck, a grandfather to 13 and a father of five, learned in 1990 that he had a daughter born from an affair while married to Dianne Kay Holechek (divorced in 1989). Dina was born in 1963 and he only met her after a letter she mailed to his home. Though he had initially reservations of meeting the woman, who said “mother said you were married and we shouldn’t interfere with your family.” Chuck arranged to see her and about their first meeting, he said, “..I look at her and it’s so amazing because I’m looking at her and she’s staring at me and we just sort of gravitate toward each other and we just went into each other’s arms and started crying.”
Chuck’s admiration and love for his mother is evident in his success as an actor and as a family man.
As for Wilma’s advice on raising children, “Give them lots of love. Take them to and Sunday school. But you see God didn’t give us our children. He only loaned them to us for a while.”
Happy Mother’s Day to Wilma! We hope your son is right and that you have many years to celebrate!
