Michaelene "Miki" Lusk Norton

Michaelene "Miki" Lusk Norton

Michaelene “Miki” Lusk Norton, a fifth-generation Houstonian and sixth-generation Texan, was named for Michele DeGeorge, her great-grandfather, who built the DeGeorge Hotel in 1913 and the Auditorium Hotel in 1926. The latter was renamed The Lancaster Hotel in 1983.

She attended Marymount College of Virginia and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1967 with a degree in history and a minor in Spanish. She studied at the University of the Americas in Mexico City and at the University of Madrid in Spain. She is married and has one son.

Miki’s interest in Houston and Texas history was piqued during the summers of 1968 and 1969 when she designed and operated Kiddie Kulture, a program that took children on a chartered school bus to explore interesting, unusual, and historic sites in Harris County and beyond.

Her years of primary research – accumulating records and oral histories about the maternal side of her father – have resulted in several awards. In 1984, the Auditorium Hotel became a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark. In 2010, the Lancaster Hotel was invited to join the Historic Hotels of American (HHA), a division of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Five Years later, HHA, not only presented the Lusk family with its Legendary Family Award, they presented Miki with its Historian of the Year Award.

Through her research Miki has become a dynamic leader in Houston’s growing appreciation of its history. She is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas and was of the Houston History Alliance, where she chaired the organization’s Advisory Council and was an Ex-Officio Board Member. In 2014, she received the Houston History Hero Award for contributions to the Houston History Alliance and to the Houston community at large.

Miki has located primary records on her paternal ancestors who were born in the United States, fought in the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Texas Revolution. She belongs to the San Jacinto Chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas and served on the Republic of Texas History Center campaign. She currently serves on the Women’s Legation and Kay Bailey Award Committees of the Texas State Historical Association, where she has several articles published in the Handbook of Texas.