Elizabeth Spears

Florence- Elizabeth Spears, 98, died at home on Saturday, October 5, 2013. She was born in Lamar on April 25, 1915, the fifth of seven children of the late Meade Poyas Hawley and George Duffie (Cap) Spears.

Miss Spears was a graduate of Draughan Business College in Columbia. She was secretary to Marshall Bridges, Attorney at Law in Florence for several years, before becoming the first civilian hired during World War II at Shaw Army Air Base. After the war, she served as executive secretary for the Willcox Law Firm for many years, and then following her retirement, returned to serve as executive secretary for U. S. District Court Judge C. Weston Houck. Miss Spears was an active member of St. Johns Church, where she served on the Altar Guild, taught Sunday School, and was involved in the Episcopal Church Women for many years.

She is survived by one sister, Sarah Hamlin Spears Estes of Camden, and by two god-daughters, Elizabeth Meade Estes Baldwin of Charlotte, and Elizabeth Murrell Smith Schwind of Houston, TX. Miss Spears is also survived by six nieces: Beverly Spears, Sarah Meade Spears Jordan, and Ferebe Gasque Pearce, all of Florence; Linda Hart Spears Smith of Columbia, Rosalyn Douglas Gasque Harley of Summerville, and Elizabeth Estes Baldwin of Charlotte, and by two nephews, Joseph Ellison Gasque of Florence and Richard Hawley Estes of Williamsburg, Virginia, as well as by ten grand nieces and nephews, and five great-great nieces and nephews to all of whom Weenie was far more than an aunt.

For more than 30 years, Miss Spears was wonderfully cared for by beloved companion and dear family friend, Celia Shird Fleming.

Funeral services will be 11:00 AM, Tuesday, October 8, 2013, at St. Johns Church, Florence. Burial, directed by Waters-Powell Funeral Home, will follow at Mount Hope Cemetery. The family will receive friends at the home of Miss Spears. Memorials may be made to St. Johns Church, 252 South Dargan Street, Florence, SC 29506.

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