Anna Magdaline Spence

Anna Magdaline Spence, 87, went to Our Father in Heaven peacefully May 7, 2017. Maggie was born Sept. 20, 1929, to Claud and Eda Terry in Greene County. She was preceded in death by her husband, Calvin Perry Spence, a son, Michael, her parents, as well as her stepmother, Amanda Belle Terry, and seven siblings. Survivors include children Stanley (Shelly), Matthew (Trachele), Clyde, Tony, Brenda, Mitzi, and Patricia Spence, Edie Engel (Ben); 17 grandchildren, Jeremy, Jessie, Stephanie, Michael Jr., Brendan, Leslie, Danielle, Caroline, Maddie and Anna Grace Spence, Heather Olvey, Holly Heer, Heather Henson, Amanda Spence-Saavedra, Jodi Engel, Erica Small and Amy Engel Nicolson and; 21 great-grandchildren; and sisters, Caroline Dodge and Agnes Pierceall. Born barely a month before the stock market crash, Maggie spent her childhood in the midst of the Great Depression. Her father was a farmer, and with farmers getting hit hardest by the depression, there was little money. Their 3-room house had a kitchen with a dirt floor. They had to buy a new stove every year because the bottom rusted out. Maggie lost her mother July 4,1937. Pop, having to work the farm, had to send her and her sisters to St. Mary's Convent in Paragould. He and his sons came to visit the girls on the weekend, and often brought them home to the farm for special occasions. Claud remarried, taking Amanda Belle Simmons as his bride in 1942. It was around this time that Maggie told Pop that she wanted to stay on the farm and help, quitting her education. When she was 16, Maggie met Perry at a social event in Marmaduke. She moved to Peoria, Illinois, where she lived with her sisters, and Perry lived with his future brothers-in-law until Maggie and Perry were married on his birthday, February 28, 1948. Their eldest two children were born in Peoria before the couple made their way to North Little Rock in 1953. There they settled their roots. They began attending St. Anne Catholic Church and had a child that same year. In 1957 there began a string of children, six born in seven years. By 1961, the family had moved into a two-story house on Sunset Drive that became their home for the next 26 years. Maggie and Perry worked hard throughout their lives, and Maggie knew how to squeeze a dollar so hard it cried. The children were never in want of anything. They were sent to Catholic schools for education. Maggie made many of the children's clothes, and made repairs as needed to stretch out the lives of the oft-handed down garments. Sons shared toys and birthday celebrations. Food was grown in the garden. Nothing was wasted. In 1977, Maggie began a career at the University of Arkansas at Medical Sciences. She began taking classes and learning medical terminology, and despite having just an 8th-grade education, Maggie retired as the manager of the Quality Assurance Department in 1991. Maggie and Perry bought their retirement home on Lake Conway in 1987. It was there Maggie seemed most tranquil. She made quilts, and other crafts, always had cookies in the cookie jar for the visitors on Sunday. And she liked to piddle in her yard. Maggie lost Perry in 2007 to a battle with cancer. Her days weren't quite as sunny anymore, but she knew she was see him again soon enough. Six years after Perry died, Maggie was mowing her yard (yes, at 83, she was mowing her yard), when she suffered a debilitating brain aneurism, from which she never fully recovered. She moved to Sherwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. Maggie's life had been fading over the past couple of days in the nursing home. A hospice nurse told us that she was fighting to hang on. Mom had said herself over the past two years that she was ready to go. So we didn't understand why she would be hanging on. The nurse told us we should encourage her to go, even though she was out of it from the morphine. So we did. Sons and daughters, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, friends, nursing home staff, came through and encouraged her to go. But she kept hanging on. Later in the evening everyone had gone home, while her son, the one whom she loved, sat by her side. Then most wonderful thing happened. He pulled up a Bible app on his phone and looked up a reading plan for the sick. He picked a plan and called up the first day's reading. It was a couple of verses from Mark 5. He read the verses for the plan, then decided he wanted to go ahead and read the whole chapter. He read down till he came to this verse. He read these words, then reread them, with more emphasis. "He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.'" ‭‭Mark‬ ‭5:34‬ ‭‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬. Then she passed. Visitation will be from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 11, 2017 at Smith-North Little Rock Funeral Home followed by a rosary led by Tom Greb. Mass of Christian Burial will be at 11:30 a.m., Friday, May 12, 2017 at St. Anne Catholic Church celebrated by Rev. Toshio Sato, CM. Burial will be in Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery. Pallbearers will be grandsons Jeremy, Jessie, Brendan and Michael Spence, Scott Heer, Lance Olvey, Christopher Henson and Julio Saavedra. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to St. Anne Building and Improvement Fund. Online obituary at www.SmithFamilyCares.com.