Evelyn Lucille Vogt Spicer, 91
Posted 8/3/2017
Evelyn Lucille Vogt Spicer, 91, was
born Nov. 18, 1925, and grew up in Hesston, Kansas, the daughter of
Marcus M. “Mox” and Grace Vogt, also Hesston natives.
She died July 21, 2017, following a
short illness.
The Vogts owned and operated the M. M.
Vogt Hardware on Main Street for more than 60 years. “Mox,” as he
was familiarly known, also served as bank president and mayor.
Evelyn graduated from Newton High
School, and attended Bethel College before going to the University of
Kansas to obtain her B.S. in Nursing.
While at KU, she met William S. “Bill”
Spicer, Jr., of Kansas City, a medical student, on a blind date. Six
months later the couple was married.
The Spicers resided in Kansas City,
while Bill finished his medical degree, where their first child
Constance Elizabeth was born. They then moved to Denver, Colorado,
after he joined the Army, to study and practice at Fitzsimmons Army
Hospital. Their second child, Marianna Chase, was born in Denver.
Bill was ordered to Korea, to serve as
a Captain commanding an Army medical clearing center for M*A*S*H
units. Evelyn, Connie and Marianna returned to Hesston to spend the
year with the Vogts. Dr. Spicer’s father, also an MD, had taught at
KU and Evelyn always thought the family would settle in Kansas.
But while in Korea, Bill was approached
by a well-known expert in infectious diseases, Dr. Theodore Woodward,
to be his chief resident at the University of Maryland Department of
Medicine. The Spicers moved to Baltimore.
In Baltimore the Spicers had two more
children, Catherine Diane and William Sidney Spicer, III.
Mrs. Spicer ran the house and raised
the children while Dr. Spicer advanced from resident to chairman of
the Division of Pulmonary Diseases, chairman of the Maryland State
Board of Health, Director of the Regional Medical Program, a member
of the Maryland Health Services Cost Commission (which decided
whether hospitals could add beds or highly specialized medical
equipment). He also served on the Armed Forces Epidemiology Board and
the National Air Pollution Council. He founded a new department for
the University of Maryland medical school and hospital – the
Department of Primary Care – and co-developed the University of
Maryland School of Nursing Nurse Practitioner Program.
In the 1980s, Mrs. Spicer went back to
school to renew her nursing credentials, and served as school nurse
for the Calvert School, a private elementary school.
Before that, she was an energetic
volunteer, working with (and later President of) the University
Hospital Ladies Auxiliary, her children’s schools, the
Woodbrook-Murray Hill Garden Club, and the Roland Park Women’s
Club.
The Spicers became enthusiastic
golfers, were members of the Country Club of Maryland, and eventually
purchased a home at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
Evelyn played golf several times a week until she was 85, and was
still an active member of her garden, book and women’s clubs.
Evelyn is survived by her four
children, Connie Zimmerman of Salisbury, Maryland, Marianna Spicer
Joslyn of Atlanta, Georgia, Catherine Spicer Tolliver of Richardson,
Texas and Bill Spicer, III, who cared for Evelyn Spicer after the
death of Dr. Spicer in 2000, until her death July 21. There are also
three grandchildren, Marc Tolliver of Dallas, Texas, Matt Tolliver of
Washington, D.C. and Michelle Allison of Waxhaw, North Carolina and
three great-grandchildren, Chase, Morgan and AJ Allison.
Mrs. Spicer was buried Wednesday, Aug.
2, 2017, at Hesston Cemetery, next to her husband and parents, and
great-aunts Ruth and May Schroeder.
