Delhi native retires as Texas adjutant general

AUSTIN, Texas – Del hi native Major General Tracy R. Norris, the 52nd Adjutant General of Texas, retired after 36 years of service in a ceremony May 13 at Camp Mabry.

Maj. Gen. Norris commanded over 24,000 troops through numerous natural disasters, deployments, and state emergency responses all in support of her motto “Texans serving Texas.”

“Every time we turned around the Texas Guard was making history, doing things we hadn’t done; and I truly believe that there is no organization that could have done what we did,” said Norris.

“The biggest thing that I take away from Maj. Gen. Norris is her compassion and her need to take care of soldiers,” said Major General Carlton Smith, assistant adjutant general. “She’s had a career that I think distinguished doesn’t adequately describe it. I would say trailblazing.”

Norris gave thanks to the strong women in her life, her mother and grandmother. Though she believed that she was fortunate to be in certain places and have opportunities she had never imagined; it was her mother that instilled a greater value of self-worth in her. “She grew us up not letting us put boundaries on our own self,” Norris said about her mother, Linda Norris.

Norris began her military career in 1986 after graduating from Florida State University with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology. She went on to receive her master’s in urban and regional planning from Florida State University, a master of strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College and a master of business administration from the University of Texas at Austin.

Norris previously served as the Deputy Adjutant General and Commander of the Texas Army National Guard, the Assistant Deputy Adjutant General, Commander of the 176th Engineer Brigade and Chief of Staff for the 36th Infantry Division where she deployed to Iraq in support of Operation New Dawn.

Major General Tracy Norris is married to Luke Cogburn and they have three wonderful hunting dogs, Comet, Zeus and Sapper.