Dale Spencer
Prayer… Thanks for the life of Dale Spencer…legacy of honesty and hard work that we see carried on in this room today in his descendents.
John 14:1-3 Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. Our football team: “Get ‘er done.” There are those in any community who make the news, those who give the speeches and the funeral eulogies, those who make the headlines on the sports page game after game and those who simply put their nose to the task and get ‘er done. That was Dale Spencer. While others were doing other worthwhile work, Dale was quietly getting ‘er done.
Dale Spencer, age 84, of the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy, Ill., and formerly of Perry, died early Sunday morning (Oct. 23, 2005) at the home. He was born August 10, 1921, in Hadley, Ill., son of the late Albert and Flo Smith Spencer. He married Maxine Taylor on March 23, 1946, and she died on November 1, 1988. Surviving is one son, Larry Spencer and wife Linda of Perry, Ill.;
Dale had three grandchildren, Shane Spencer and wife Lisa live near Perry, Lisa Essex lives with her husband Brian of Spring Hill, Kansas, and Teresa Conner is married to James of Perry,
Dale also had five great-grandchildren, Lane and Kaylee Spencer of Perry, Gauge Essex of Spring Hill, Kansas, and Emma and Ashton Conner of Perry, . He was preceded in death by his parents and stepfather, Percy Cummings. I’m sure that Dale would be pleased to have so many of his family still list Perry as their address. Dale farmed southwest of Perry, for many years. He loved to restore antique furniture and go to antique auctions. Dale was also a carpenter at one time and with his wife ran three different restaurants in Perry, Ill. He was an Army veteran of W.W. II serving in Africa and was a life member of the Perry American Legion Post where, in early years, was very active. He was also a past 4-H Leader and a member of the Pike Co. Farm Bureau.
My brother Keith and I would often to go to Spencer’s to ride horses with Larry. Every time we went, the furniture was different. I wondered if the Spencers truly ever owned anything. It seemed like everything in their house was either recently bought at an auction or was on its was to one.
We didn’t spend too much time in the house. Dale set a county record for his farmstead getting hit by lightening the most times. Maybe that’s why he never quit working…he was afraid of getting hit by lightning.
Dale and Maxine spent many years working for George Coffman at his auction business in Jacksonville. I talked to the Coffman boys this week about Dale and although I interviewed them separately, both had the same first response: “Boy, that guy was a worker.” What started out as a part time volunteer job soon turned into a major obligation for Dale and Maxine when Ron Coffman was called to Viet Nam.
But every Friday night, that’s where you’d find them. Maxine keeping records and Dale calling out the bids. I went out there once to buy an easy chair. Dale said, “Which one you want? I’ll get it for you.” “But don’t you have to bid?” “Yea, but sometimes I don’t see all of ‘em.” I got the chair.
The boys said that Dale had a trick of staring at you when you were one bid behind. They said they knew that some sofas sold for a hundred dollars higher than they were worth simply because the bidder didn’t want to disappoint Dale…or make him mad.
As his obituary stated, he and Maxine … along with Hep Smith.. ran all three of Perry’s restaurants at one time or another. In fact, the present Buck and Doe’s restaurant still has a few things in the kitchen that Dale bought… at an auction, of course.
Back in the days before Wal-Mart and Best Buy, you went to Dale when you needed a piece of furniture or an appliance. Dad still has a refrigerator in his shop that Dale got for him 30 years ago..used… $30 and it still runs better than Elmer does.
Ken Coffman… Dale took an old chest of drawers and refinished it. Said, “Heck, put it up and let it bring whatever it’ll bring.” It set the record for the month for a piece of furniture at the auction.
One of his fellow workers at Coffman’s said that you didn’t want to stand too close to him. Dale would stand there and talk to you out of the corner of his mouth and he kept saying, “You see? You see?” and every time he’d say that he’d punch your arm…or your stomach… You learned to talk to Dale from a distance.
Ken Coffman’s wife told me that Dale’s real talent had nothing to do with auctions… it was his ability to cut a rug on the dance floor. She said that if Dale would see a pretty woman unattached at a dance, he wouldn’t even ask the lady….he’d just sweep her off her feet and start dancing… especially the blondes. Maxine would just shake her head and laugh.
And Dale was known for his sense of humor. A grin was his favorite expression. Dan Nash was once helping him push a bull up a loading chute …got half way up and loading shoot started rolling down hill. The chute and the bull. Dan hollered, “Dale! What do I do!” Dale smiled and said, “Let ‘er roll! Let ‘er roll!”
Larry summed up his Dad perfectly one night this week when he simply said, “Dad was pretty much Dad. He liked to work.”
Some talk about it, some criticize others for doing it, and some don’t even think about doing it, but Dale simply got ‘er done.
Ecclesiastes3:1-4 To every thing there is a season, a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal, a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance
And…we might add… I time to Ger ‘er done.
Prayer …for the life of Dale Spencer…his example of hard work and friendliness….his willingness to simply help out and get ‘er done.
Graveside
Tim Challie..wrote about his dad. Dad had working man hands. I’ll never forget those hands, for they were hard as rock. Holding dad’s hand was like holding a sanding block and just about as uncomfortable. As he labored day-in and day-out, his hands built up so many rough calluses that they soon became as hard as dried leather. They were scarred with the evidence of so many bumps and bruises inflicted on job sites. I saw in his hands an ideal, for to me they represented a hard-working man who labored diligently to support his family. I felt pride when I compared his hands to those of men who spent their lives at desks – there really was no comparison - and looked forward to the day when my hands would be hard and callused like dads’. I believe there is something inside each of us that really wants nothing more than to carry out God’s original command to humans which was to till the soil and to care for the earth. Dad had the privilege of doing that every day and the even greater privilege of loving nothing more. It occurs to me as I write this that one day we are all going to stand before God and he is going to reach down to each of us and feel our hands. He has assigned to all of His children the same task, and it is a difficult one. We need to take His message into all the world, diligently and shamelessly proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ. If our hands are not as rough as sandpaper and do not feel like old leather, perhaps we are not being diligent in that labor. If our hands bear no scars, perhaps we have not received the cuts and bruises that are bound to come to those who go forth on His behalf. One day God is going to reward those who labored diligently for Him and all the evidence He is going to need will be written on our hands. God will reward those who, like dad, have working man hands. Let’s pray… Father..we commit the body of Dale Spencer to you. We pray for the family who will continue his legacy of hard work and love and friendship…In Jesus’ name… Amen.
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