Mary Jean (Wilkerson) Spencer

On Monday, October 27, 2025, Mary Jean Wilkerson Spencer, a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, great 
grandmother AND great-great grandmother, entered the gates of heaven at age 89. She was born to James 
Carrie Wilkerson and Mary Josephine Cottrell Wilkerson on June 30, 1936, in the town of Bedford, Virginia.
She and her younger brother, James “Jimmy” Wilkerson (1940-19??) walked daily through the town of 
Bedford to grade school having the Peakes of Otter as their landscape. She had easy access to the library 
on her journey to school and she visited often. Jean became an avid reader, and James Patterson was 
among her favorites. As an adult, reading the newspaper also became a daily ritual. She attended Bedford 
High School, learning Latin at age 16. Notice the attached photo of her in her Toga at a Latin Club function.
At the age of 18 Jean enrolled in the nursing program in downtown Norfolk, Virginia. Students resided in a 
beautiful Victorian style house in Ghent, which was across the street from DePaul Hospital. At that time 
students were strictly monitored by the instructors, day and night. Mom would tell the story of coming 
home from a date, and she could be seen on the porch by the instructor. Hoping to get a kiss goodnight, I 
suppose she was being observed from a window, and a phone call was made to the person monitoring the 
phones where the students lived, to tell Jean to get inside the house!

She would later meet the man she would marry, Michael Thomas Spencer, at a YMCA dance held for Navy 
Sailors. They would raise a family of three children in the city of Virginia Beach and resided just outside the 
gates of the Naval Amphibious Base on Gunter Street in navy housing. A life of simplicity.

As a naval wife, Jean was a stay-at-home mom, an Avon lady, raised and disciplined her children well, and 
later worked in her chosen field of nursing. Driving a car was not needed during those early days of 
motherhood, but as the youngest of 3, I can remember her having to get a driver’s license out of necessity. 
When Jean’s mother would come to visit, she would always arrive on a Greyhound bus. Those were happy 
days. Through the Vietnam War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and other naval deployments, she was steady, 
strong and had learned to function independently. 

Around 1974 life took a turn and Jean had to learn how to become a single mom. Through an undesired 
divorce, life became difficult and brought about many challenges. She found her footing and became a 
fighter. She climbed a multitude of mountains during those days.

Jean later found “the little church with a big heart” decades later on her regular travels on Lynnhaven 
Parkway in Virgina Beach. Originally, she was hired at Lynnhaven Presbyterian Church to work in the 
nursery. At that time the Reverend Dr. Scottie Griffin was leading the congregation there. Eventually she 
started volunteering as a part time secretary for the church, and when she and I talked on the phone, Mom 
spoke fondly of Scottie Griffin. Jean found love and friendship at LPC, and through the spiritual guidance 
of the pastor, and Godly love of the congregation mom joined and found her place of service within the 
church. She found happy days again.

I plucked my mother from her beloved state of Virginia and the last five years of her of her life she would
live out her days in Florida. She resided at Life Care Center of Pensacola, and It was through divine 
intervention that God placed angels in my path during Covid years to find her this beautiful home.

The staff and medical professionals loved and cared for her like family. To the staff, I referred to her as Lady 
Spencer, and I did my best to treat her like royalty. When she called my phone, the Downton Abby theme 
played. I washed her nightgowns in a detergent that fragranced her room. I visited mom as often as 
possible, and every Sunday. Her room was referred to as the Snoopy room. She loved the Peanuts comic 
strips in the newspapers, but it was truly Snoopy that dominated. She enjoyed hearing me read the history 
of how Snoopy came to be. He was a source of happy for her. She would say it was because we owned a 
Beagle as a young family, and mom named her Cleo. 

I am honored to say, Mary Jean is a survivor of life in so many respects. Ways that I hope to express in writing
down her life’s story, at the recommendation of her favorite physician, Dr. Alper. Jean’s story is of a father’s 
adoration, small town upbringing, shame, unexpected pregnancy, Navy life in the 60s and 70s, children, 
divorce, broken noses, a shooting, forgeries, jail, depression, suicides, alcohol, love and redemption. A 
book of “fictional” excitement and strife for sure, and yet a life lived. I thank God for the gift of heaven, and 
knowing my mother is there with her family. Amen

Mary Jean is survived by her daughter Kathleen Micheal Spencer Lindsay and her husband Timothy and 
William O’Regan, Debbie’s husband.

Granddaughters from Debra: Christina Gibson, Michele O’Regan, Angela Dixon and her husband Aaron.
Granddaughters from Kathy: Jessica Vick and husband Thomas, Whitney Morris and husband James.
Great grandchildren: Eddie and wife Nikki, Austin, Aubrey, Henry, Nora, Tripp, Andrew and Danica.
Great-great grandchild: Emerald Jeanne Gibson.
Niece: Sabrina Lynn Wilkerson Dube.

Jean lived through the passing of her ex-husband Michael Thomas Spencer (1937-2003), her oldest 
daughter, Deborah Ann Spencer O’Regan (1957-2020), her son Kenneth Edward Spencer (1959-2022), and 
Ken’s wife Maureen O’Brien Spencer, and grandson Joseph Michael O’Regan (1988-2020).

Her requests to be cremated and have her ashes spread within the Peakes of Otter will be granted

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Mary Jean (Wilkerson) Spencer, please visit our floral store.