Annie Lou (Davis) Spitler, loving wife and mother of five children, died at age 93, March 3, 2020, compassionately attended by her family in Socorro, New Mexico. Born in Ft. Meyers, Florida, March 27, 1926, Annie grew up in the historic coastal town of Bath, North Carolina. She was valedictorian of her Bath High School class, graduating at age 16 in 1942, and soon joined the WWII war effort, taking clerical work in the Naval shipyards at Richmond, Virginia.
Early in 1944, while attending UNC Women’s College in Greensboro, Annie met Loring West Spitler, an Army Air Corps soldier from Indiana, before he was shipped to Italy during WWII. When the war ended, Annie and Loring (aka Lou and West) wed September 6, 1945, in Bath at the St. Thomas Episcopal Church, the oldest church in North Carolina, built in 1734, and restored in the 1940s by Annie’s father, Robert Davis, a master stone mason and carpenter.
Annie and Loring lived in many places during their 62 years together from Wheeler, Indiana, to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Loring obtained an engineering degree at the University of New Mexico in 1949. As their family grew and for better work opportunity, they relocated to Illinois, Ohio, and settled in southern California. Annie, like her mother, school teacher Senia Davis, earned a teaching credential from California State College Fullerton in 1969, specializing in art education and home economics. In 1972, the couple returned to New Mexico and lived in multiple cities over thirty years: Albuquerque, Old Mesilla, Las Cruces, Clovis, Rio Rancho, and Taos. Annie had a successful clerical and library career, working at the NMSU Department of Agriculture in Las Cruces, Eastern New Mexico University Library at Portales, and at the Instructional Media Library, UNM Albuquerque. She moved to Truth or Consequences after Loring’s death in 2008.
Always an artist, Annie had a passion for landscape painting and exhibited at the Governor’s Gallery at the State Capitol, Santa Fe, in 1978, and in numerous Taos shows in the early 1990s. She was an avid reader, mostly of biography and history, and loved reading the Sunday paper to keep up to date with news and politics. She was an expert seamstress, enjoyed playing her piano, and flower gardening. Genealogy research and family history became a focus in latter years. In T. or C., she was a member of the Methodist church, and volunteered at the Geronimo Springs Museum, where she had a retrospective exhibition of her paintings in 2012, scenes of New Mexico.
Annie is preceded in death by husband, Loring W. Spitler; her parents, Robert and Senia Davis; siblings, Robert Davis, Jr. (Anna); Jean Cunningham (Dick). She is survived by her five children: Karen Schueler (Fred) of Newark DE, Loring Spitler, Jr. (Janet) of San Diego CA; Mark Spitler (Gail) of Ipex NC; Richard Spitler (Joan) of Portland OR; and Priscilla Spitler of T or C.; ten grandchildren, and fourteen great grandchildren across three continents. She was well loved by her nieces and nephews, cousins, and many friends.
Early in 1944, while attending UNC Women’s College in Greensboro, Annie met Loring West Spitler, an Army Air Corps soldier from Indiana, before he was shipped to Italy during WWII. When the war ended, Annie and Loring (aka Lou and West) wed September 6, 1945, in Bath at the St. Thomas Episcopal Church, the oldest church in North Carolina, built in 1734, and restored in the 1940s by Annie’s father, Robert Davis, a master stone mason and carpenter.
Annie and Loring lived in many places during their 62 years together from Wheeler, Indiana, to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Loring obtained an engineering degree at the University of New Mexico in 1949. As their family grew and for better work opportunity, they relocated to Illinois, Ohio, and settled in southern California. Annie, like her mother, school teacher Senia Davis, earned a teaching credential from California State College Fullerton in 1969, specializing in art education and home economics. In 1972, the couple returned to New Mexico and lived in multiple cities over thirty years: Albuquerque, Old Mesilla, Las Cruces, Clovis, Rio Rancho, and Taos. Annie had a successful clerical and library career, working at the NMSU Department of Agriculture in Las Cruces, Eastern New Mexico University Library at Portales, and at the Instructional Media Library, UNM Albuquerque. She moved to Truth or Consequences after Loring’s death in 2008.
Always an artist, Annie had a passion for landscape painting and exhibited at the Governor’s Gallery at the State Capitol, Santa Fe, in 1978, and in numerous Taos shows in the early 1990s. She was an avid reader, mostly of biography and history, and loved reading the Sunday paper to keep up to date with news and politics. She was an expert seamstress, enjoyed playing her piano, and flower gardening. Genealogy research and family history became a focus in latter years. In T. or C., she was a member of the Methodist church, and volunteered at the Geronimo Springs Museum, where she had a retrospective exhibition of her paintings in 2012, scenes of New Mexico.
Annie is preceded in death by husband, Loring W. Spitler; her parents, Robert and Senia Davis; siblings, Robert Davis, Jr. (Anna); Jean Cunningham (Dick). She is survived by her five children: Karen Schueler (Fred) of Newark DE, Loring Spitler, Jr. (Janet) of San Diego CA; Mark Spitler (Gail) of Ipex NC; Richard Spitler (Joan) of Portland OR; and Priscilla Spitler of T or C.; ten grandchildren, and fourteen great grandchildren across three continents. She was well loved by her nieces and nephews, cousins, and many friends.
Annie Lou (Davis) Spitler, loving wife and mother of five children, died at age 93, March 3, 2020, compassionately attended by her family in Socorro, New Mexico. Born in Ft. Meyers, Florida, March 27, 1926, Annie grew up in the historic coastal town of Bath, North Carolina. She was valedictorian of her Bath High School class, graduating at age 16 in 1942, and soon joined the WWII war effort, taking clerical work in the Naval shipyards at Richmond, Virginia.
Early in 1944, while attending UNC Women’s College in Greensboro, Annie met Loring West Spitler, an Army Air Corps soldier from Indiana, before he was shipped to Italy during WWII. When the war ended, Annie and Loring (aka Lou and West) wed September 6, 1945, in Bath at the St. Thomas Episcopal Church, the oldest church in North Carolina, built in 1734, and restored in the 1940s by Annie’s father, Robert Davis, a master stone mason and carpenter.
Annie and Loring lived in many places during their 62 years together from Wheeler, Indiana, to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Loring obtained an engineering degree at the University of New Mexico in 1949. As their family grew and for better work opportunity, they relocated to Illinois, Ohio, and settled in southern California. Annie, like her mother, school teacher Senia Davis, earned a teaching credential from California State College Fullerton in 1969, specializing in art education and home economics. In 1972, the couple returned to New Mexico and lived in multiple cities over thirty years: Albuquerque, Old Mesilla, Las Cruces, Clovis, Rio Rancho, and Taos. Annie had a successful clerical and library career, working at the NMSU Department of Agriculture in Las Cruces, Eastern New Mexico University Library at Portales, and at the Instructional Media Library, UNM Albuquerque. She moved to Truth or Consequences after Loring’s death in 2008.
Always an artist, Annie had a passion for landscape painting and exhibited at the Governor’s Gallery at the State Capitol, Santa Fe, in 1978, and in numerous Taos shows in the early 1990s. She was an avid reader, mostly of biography and history, and loved reading the Sunday paper to keep up to date with news and politics. She was an expert seamstress, enjoyed playing her piano, and flower gardening. Genealogy research and family history became a focus in latter years. In T. or C., she was a member of the Methodist church, and volunteered at the Geronimo Springs Museum, where she had a retrospective exhibition of her paintings in 2012, scenes of New Mexico.
Annie is preceded in death by husband, Loring W. Spitler; her parents, Robert and Senia Davis; siblings, Robert Davis, Jr. (Anna); Jean Cunningham (Dick). She is survived by her five children: Karen Schueler (Fred) of Newark DE, Loring Spitler, Jr. (Janet) of San Diego CA; Mark Spitler (Gail) of Ipex NC; Richard Spitler (Joan) of Portland OR; and Priscilla Spitler of T or C.; ten grandchildren, and fourteen great grandchildren across three continents. She was well loved by her nieces and nephews, cousins, and many friends.
Early in 1944, while attending UNC Women’s College in Greensboro, Annie met Loring West Spitler, an Army Air Corps soldier from Indiana, before he was shipped to Italy during WWII. When the war ended, Annie and Loring (aka Lou and West) wed September 6, 1945, in Bath at the St. Thomas Episcopal Church, the oldest church in North Carolina, built in 1734, and restored in the 1940s by Annie’s father, Robert Davis, a master stone mason and carpenter.
Annie and Loring lived in many places during their 62 years together from Wheeler, Indiana, to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Loring obtained an engineering degree at the University of New Mexico in 1949. As their family grew and for better work opportunity, they relocated to Illinois, Ohio, and settled in southern California. Annie, like her mother, school teacher Senia Davis, earned a teaching credential from California State College Fullerton in 1969, specializing in art education and home economics. In 1972, the couple returned to New Mexico and lived in multiple cities over thirty years: Albuquerque, Old Mesilla, Las Cruces, Clovis, Rio Rancho, and Taos. Annie had a successful clerical and library career, working at the NMSU Department of Agriculture in Las Cruces, Eastern New Mexico University Library at Portales, and at the Instructional Media Library, UNM Albuquerque. She moved to Truth or Consequences after Loring’s death in 2008.
Always an artist, Annie had a passion for landscape painting and exhibited at the Governor’s Gallery at the State Capitol, Santa Fe, in 1978, and in numerous Taos shows in the early 1990s. She was an avid reader, mostly of biography and history, and loved reading the Sunday paper to keep up to date with news and politics. She was an expert seamstress, enjoyed playing her piano, and flower gardening. Genealogy research and family history became a focus in latter years. In T. or C., she was a member of the Methodist church, and volunteered at the Geronimo Springs Museum, where she had a retrospective exhibition of her paintings in 2012, scenes of New Mexico.
Annie is preceded in death by husband, Loring W. Spitler; her parents, Robert and Senia Davis; siblings, Robert Davis, Jr. (Anna); Jean Cunningham (Dick). She is survived by her five children: Karen Schueler (Fred) of Newark DE, Loring Spitler, Jr. (Janet) of San Diego CA; Mark Spitler (Gail) of Ipex NC; Richard Spitler (Joan) of Portland OR; and Priscilla Spitler of T or C.; ten grandchildren, and fourteen great grandchildren across three continents. She was well loved by her nieces and nephews, cousins, and many friends.
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Advertisement
