Inal Orene "Rene" Spencer

Bridgeport~ “Rene”, 95, passed away on Wednesday, May 1, 2019 at Town Hall Estates in Hillsboro, Texas.

Funeral is 11:00 a.m. Saturday, May 4, 2019 at Joplin Baptist Church with burial at Joplin Cemetery. Family will receive friends 10-11 a.m. Saturday at the church.

Pallbearers are David Matlock, Jamie Clay, Jerry Tucker, Eddie Clay, Jim Henderson, and Terry Lewis.

She was born February 28th, 1924 in Jack County, Texas to Joseph Birch and Clara Clay. The seventh child of eleven children.

She attended school in Berwick, Texas, graduating with a High School diploma in May of 1941. She married T.J. Spencer in Graham, Texas, February 8th, 1946. They first lived in Jacksboro, and then traveled with and exploratory drilling rig for Conoco Oil to Stephenville, Texas and later to North Dakota. The couple moved to Joplin, Texas about 1950.

Rene received a cosmetologist license in 1962 and began working as a hair dresser in Jacksboro, Texas. She opened her own shop in Joplin, Texas about 1965 and operated the shop until 1982. After retirement the couple built a home at sunset shores on Lake Bridgeport and lived there until T.J.’s death in May of 2001. In their retirement years they enjoyed camping and fishing with friends. Always interested in self-improvement, Rene achieved an associate’s degree from Weatherford Community College May 13th, 1978.

As members of the Lost Battalion and U.S.S Houston survivors association they missed only one annual reunion between 1946 and 2014. Life members of the Joplin Baptist Church they attended regularly and donated the land where the church now stands.

Rene was preceded in death by her mother and father as well as brothers, Jack, Melvin, Joe Frank, Bill, Henry, and Charlie. Also, preceding in death were sisters Jewell Barker, Fannie Mae Hughes, and Ida Looney. Her husband T.J. Spencer and daughter Nelda Jerene Cox also preceded her in death. She is survived by her two sons, Tom Spencer of Vernon, Andy Spencer of Hillsboro and sister Marie Matlock of Jacksboro. She is survived by six grandchildren, two-step grandchildren, twelve great-grandchildren; and other relatives and a host of friends