The Zanza Bar, the Yucca and Romolo’s Supper Club were the haunts of Norma Fowell, who sang and played guitar for years in the Denver area. Using the stage names Julie Jones and Julie Seviens, Fowell also sang at the Tollgate and the Gay ’90s saloons in Central City.
She died May 6 at age 73.
Fowell started singing as a child and saw to it that her children did, too.
Fowell sang country-western, show tunes, early rock ‘n’ roll and pop “and probably had 1,000 songs in her repertoire,” said her son, Bobby Allison.
The Zanza Bar and Yucca were on East Colfax Avenue. The former had a huge neon sign that read, “It’s later than you think,” and metal cacti out in front. A scene was shot there for the 1978 Clint Eastwood movie “Every Which Way But Loose.”
Allison, who sings and plays guitar at a casino in Pass Christian, Miss., recalls being on a radio show in Texas with his mother and sister, Kathie Cochran of Littleton, when she was 4 and he was 5.
“It came naturally,” Allison said.
His maternal grandmother, Opal Van Ness, was a gospel singer. Fowell made sure music continued.
“Mother would call us in from the yard when we were playing and tell us it was time to sing. She taught us everything” even though Fowell didn’t read music and neither do her children, Allison said. “She just had an intuitive sense.
“I started playing the guitar as soon as I could get my fingers around the neck of the guitar,” he said.
Allison and Cochran can remember jam sessions all the time in their home, sometimes two going simultaneously.
Another daughter, Donna Barker, and three of Fowell’s great-grandchildren sang at her funeral.
Despite the focus on music, her children were Fowell’s first interest, said Barker, of Littleton.
“Even though she was tired when she got home, she sang me lullabies,” Barker said. “She was a great storyteller with a vivid imagination, and she would stage treasure hunts in the living room. We’d all act out the stories.”
The “treasure” was usually candy, “but to me the treasure was the time she spent with us,” she said.
Norma Holman was born Nov. 28, 1931, in Walters, Okla., and went to school in Levelland, Texas. She married Conde Rodriquez in 1947, and they had two children, Cochran and Allison.
Fowell and Rodriquez were divorced, and she later married Clifton Allison, the father of Barker. Bobby Allison later took his stepfather’s name.
In addition to her children, Fowell is survived by four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren; her brother, Johnny Williams of Waukegan, Ill.; and a longtime friend, Ace Ball of Pueblo.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at vculver@denverpost.com or 303-820-1223.
