Louise Watterson Spangler

Louise Watterson Spangler, 102, of Elliston, passed into the presence of her Lord and Savior on Sunday, August 14, 2022. She was born on June 18, 1920, in a small four-room house, which still stands today on the property of Eileen and Barry Edwards. She was the third of four children. By 1925 the family was in the much larger Watterson homeplace, built by her father on the hill across the river from the original home. Louises father farmed and worked on the railroad. A grandmother and some aunts and uncles lived with them at various times. The kitchen was crowded, so Louises older sister learned domestic skills while Louise joined her brothers in outdoor activities. Louise relished gardening, berry picking, hunting, fishing, and swimming. Her pets were barn kittens and other baby farm animals. All her life she enjoyed chopping wood and had a strong dislike for dusting furniture. Louise learned to give as good as she got when she was picked on. In their early school years, the Watterson siblings, along with the children of nearby families, walked one mile up the RR tracks, crossing at least two trestles, to the old Ironto school. Louise was the designated family lunch pail carrier. The long walk left these country kids dingy with coal dust from the trains by the time they arrived each morning. As Louise and her peers neared the school, Irontos city kids regularly stood on a bank above the tracks, pelting the country kids with rocks. On a day that has lived in infamy, one of the attackers lost his footing and fell down the bank. Seeing her opportunity, Louise hurled the lunch bucket at him, cutting his knee open. When she was getting punished and given the opportunity to express remorse, Louise did express some form of regret, saying, I meant to hit him in the head instead! Louise was a gifted teacher. She graduated from Radford College. Her first teaching experience, in the early 1940s, was at tiny Friendship School, located in Friendship Hollow near Shawsville. There were eighteen students in seven grades, housed in one room, with a shared water bucket and dipper, a coal stove, and a nearby outhouse. Louise used familiar items as teaching props. Counting little green apples and green walnuts helped with early math lessons. She had the older kids help the younger ones. While teaching, Louise boarded in Friendship Hollow during the week, going home each weekend. In Friendship Hollow she met her future husband, Roscoe Spangler. When the young people went coon hunting as one of their entertainments, Roscoe was impressed that Louise could climb the ridges and cut through brush, having no trouble keeping up with the rest. She was good with a gun and could often outshoot Roscoe, whether it was groundhogs, squirrels, or even green walnuts. So, their courtship began. When Friendship School closed, Louise was asked to teach third and fourth grades at Shawsville Elementary school. In 1944, during WWII, Louise joined the WACs (Womens Army Corp). She was training to be an Educational Reconditioning Specialist, using her teaching skills to help wounded vets catch up on their education until they were well enough to return to duty. However, a marriage proposal from Roscoe and the desire for a family got increasing priority. Shortly before the war ended, Louise was issued an honorable discharge and took up family life. By 1952, three children, Kitty, Jean, and Joe, were part of the family. Roscoe built a small house on a corner of the Watterson property where they raised their family. Louise eventually returned to teaching at the new Ironto School and paddled the backsides (her only form of punishment) of many students, maybe of some of you listening today. She stopped teaching in 1969 when her children were mostly on their own. After Roscoe passed away in 1974, Louise sold the house to Kitty and Larry and put a mobile home beside it, where she really enjoyed her friends and grandchildren. Louise was a great listener, and enjoyed playing Rook. She and her family all loved the nearby river and creek. She taught her kids and grandkids and some neighbor kids to swim by holding them up by the straps of bib overalls to help them stay afloat. Somewhere in her early twenties, Louise became a follower of Jesus. She (and Roscoe) loved to attend various community churches and felt at home in them all. Louise loved the Bible and had her family attending church and related activities all their lives. Before they had a car, she and Roscoe and the kids would walk up the RR tracks to Ironto community tent meeting/revivals. Louise began volunteering at Meadowbrook Nursing Home, then at Richfield Living. At Richfield, she helped organize a Sunday morning Bible Class and a Sunday afternoon hymn singing. Louise had a special concern for a much-loved relative, who seemed to have no interest in God or his eternal life after death or spiritual things. But she knew that God answers prayer, and Louise never gave up praying for him. In her later years, she discovered that he loved black walnuts. So, she would spend hours preparing Bible lessons and cracking and picking black walnut meats. With each packet of painstakingly shelled walnuts, she also mailed a Bible lesson. This man said he never met a black walnut that he didnt love, so he would eat the walnuts and read the lessons. Her praying continued and the lessons and walnuts kept coming. Eventually he started asking questions about the Bible lessons. It was a great joy to Louise when he turned to Jesus Christ as his LORD and Savior about a year before he died at the age of 93. Louise moved into Richfield Living Nursing Center in January 2020, then into the VA Veterans Care Center in July 2021. She loved to make new friends and travel over the building using her walker, and she continued to play the piano whenever she had an opportunity, until May 30, 2022, when she had several falls and possibly a stroke. Louise was preceded in death by her parents, Charles Bud and Susie Watterson; husband, Roscoe Spangler; sister, Elizabeth Kicklighter; brothers, Charles Watterson, Jr. (June), and Samuel Watterson. She is survived by her children, Kitty Harmon (Larry), Jean Pauley, and Joe Spangler (Joyce); grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, and nephews. The family wishes to thank the Veterans Affairs Medical Clinic, Richfield Living, the Virginia Veterans Care Center, and a special thanks to Marie, for their care. The family also thanks those who visited Louise and sent cards, and the many who remembered her in their prayers. The family will receive friends on Wednesday, August 17, 2022, from 6-8 pm at the John M. Oakey & Son Funeral Home in Salem. Funeral services will be held on Thursday, August 18, 2022, at 2 pm in the funeral home chapel with Rev. Dr. Neil C. Damgaard officiating. Burial will follow at 3:30 pm at Halls UMC Cemetery on North Fork Rd. There will not be a processional to the cemetery. Online condolences may be expressed to the Spangler family by visiting www.johnmoakey.com. Service Details. Visitation When Wednesday, August 17th, 2022 6:00pm - 8:00pm Location John M. Oakey & Son Chapel Address 305 Roanoke Boulevard Salem, Virginia 24153 Service When Thursday, August 18th, 2022 2:00pm Location John M. Oakey & Son Chapel Address 305 Roanoke Boulevard Salem, Virginia 24153 Interment When Thursday, August 18th, 2022 Location Halls United Methodist Church Cemetery Address 4302 N. Fork Road Ironto, VA 24087