Helen Mitchell Spires

Glover Funeral Home of Clayton

Viewed: 595

Posted by: Glover Funeral Home
[email protected]
334-775-3403
Date: Jul 31 2024 3:25 PM

Helen Elizabeth Mitchell Spires, of Mandeville, Louisiana, passed away Wednesday, July 3, 2024, At the age of 95.

Memorial graveside services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, August 31, 2024, at the Clayton City Cemetery in Clayton, Alabama with Reverend Shane Traylor officiating and Glover Funeral Home of Clayton directing. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the library of your choice or your favorite charity.

Helen was born on March 31, 1929, in Fyffe, Alabama, atop Sand Mountain to her parents, the late Reuben Dallas and Lucy Elizabeth Morton Mitchell. Raised on a farm on Sand Mountain,Alabama, during the Great Depression, she learned to work hard from an early age. She graduated from Fyffe High School and went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in Home Economics from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. After graduation, she worked as an assistant home demonstration agent for the Alabama State Extension Service in Barbour County Alabama, where she met her future husband, William Charles Spires. She later worked for the Campfire Girls in Des Moines, Iowa. Helen and Bill married in 1955, and they lived for a brief time in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, where Bill was stationed in the United States Air Force. They moved to Auburn, Alabama for Bill to finish Pharmacy School and where their oldest daughter was born. They then moved to Dothan, Alabama in 1957, and Helen worked as a traveling Girl Scout Executive for southeast Alabama. She was a lifelong Troop Leader and volunteer for the Girl Scouts of America. She was also a volunteer for the National Peanut Festival and served as the parade float riders Chairman for many years. She taught the five-year-old Sunday school class at Calvary Baptist Church. Helen moved to Georgetown, Georgia on the beautiful shores of Lake Eufaula in 1994 and lived there for 21 years. While there, she was on the Board of Directors for the Quitman County Library. She was a voracious reader and cared passionately about literacy and the education of children. She moved to Mandeville, Louisiana in 2015 and lived there for the remainder of her life.

She was preceded in death by her husband, William Charles Spires, her parents, six sisters, and two brothers.

Helen is survived by her three daughters, Leigh Spires Wanless (Eugene) of Mandeville, Louisiana; Elizabeth Spires Jones of Panama City Beach, Florida; and Nancy Spires Mannebach (David) of Asheville, North Carolina; her grandchildren, Laura Peterman Wells (Kevin), Lynn Peterman Benton (Dion), Adam Peterman, Jennifer Jones Brewer (Chris), Geoffrey Jones (Lori), and Emily Elizabeth Mannebach; eleven great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandson; and a host of extended family members and friends whom she loved dearly. Helen had a larger-than-life personality and lived every minute to the fullest. Affectionately called “Big Hel” by her daughters, Mrs. Spires loved a good joke and had a hilarious sense of humor. There are many “Big Hel” stories and memories to be shared by family and friends.

Special thanks and love extended to her precious caregivers, Niesha Keyes and Lisa Reese.

 

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