MAE H. SPICER
June 25, 1930-Oct. 17, 2012
KENANSVILLE -- Mae Hager Spicer, 82, died at home Oct. 17, 2012, after fighting pancreatic cancer for more than a year.
A prominent resident of Kenansville for more than five decades, she was born in Bessemer City to the late Forrest Sample and Juanita Hager.
She graduated from Montreat College in 1952 with a degree in chemistry and home economics.
Before joining the Agricultural Extension Service, she was a teacher in Newport and at B.F. Grady School in Duplin County.
She retired in 1987 after a career spent improving her community and building the skills of thousands of adults and children as home economics field faculty for the North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service, serving Duplin County and the Southeastern District of North Carolina.
She served as president of the North Carolina Home Economics Association, among many other professional leadership roles in the state, region and nation. She was an advocate of lifelong learning and service. She was recipient of the J.R. Reynolds Award of Excellence.
Mae was generous, talented, wise and kind. She enriched the lives of all of those fortunate enough to receive her warm smile and gentle counsel.
A lifelong Presbyterian, she served for many years as an ordained elder and as clerk of the session at Grove Presbyterian Church in Kenansville.
Mae is survived by her two daughters, Elizabeth Hager Spicer Lear and husband, Van R. Lear, of Glen Ellyn, Ill., and Julia Anne Spicer and husband, Kevin Sheehan, of Washington, D.C.; a granddaughter, Spicer Virginia Lear of Glen Ellyn; grandson, Williams Spicer Lear of Glen Ellyn; and a sister, Joan Hager Smith of Bessemer City.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Williams Spicer Jr.; son, Williams "Buck" Spicer III; sister, Rachel Hager Kiser, and brother, David Abel Hager.
A memorial service will be conducted at a later date at Grove Presbyterian Church in Kenansville, with private inurnment to follow at Willow Dale Cemetery in Goldsboro.
The family will receive friends at 192 S. Country Club Drive, Kenansville, from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials to celebrate Mae Spicer's life to be made to Grove Presbyterian Church, P.O. Box 786 Kenansville, or the North Carolina Family and Consumer Sciences Foundation, Campus Box 7645, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C., 27695 (in memory of Mae Spicer).
Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.seymourfuneralhome.com.
(Pd)
Published in Obituaries on October 18, 2012 1:51 PM