In Memoriam — Louise Marie Spenser
Louise Spencer, born Louise Marie Due, in Exeter, Nebraska on 18th September 1928, will be remembered fondly by generations of kindergarteners whom she taught in Tappan and Orangeburg, NY. Her energy and strength were awesome! She and her husband Walt built their house on Gerson’s Lane in Palisades, NY, in a community that had grown together at Camp Shanks after WWII, and where their children Linda, Erik and Kent grew up.
They later moved to Bloomingburg, NY, where Walt ran a kit furniture business with much help from Louise. Around this time Louise became a competent sailor, bravely crewing a sailboat on the Hudson and farther afield with the enthusiastic and impetuous Walt. They finally moved to Goshen in 2006, where their home became the gathering place not only for the families of their three children, with six grandchildren and ten great grandchildren, but also for the Goldstein family from Sparkill, who had been among their earliest friends at Shanks, and have been close friends ever since.
Louise was active in the Presbyterian church, first in Palisades, NY, and later in Goshen, but never lost touch with her Lutheran roots, having been raised among Danish immigrant farmers in Nebraska whose culture gave her a strong appreciation of the Grundtvig folk school tradition. She died on 30th June 2023, and her ashes will be taken to the family grave in Cordova, near Exeter, Nebraska, as she wished. It is a peaceful place surrounded by the corn fields that her family worked for so long