Isla Mae Spencer of Bartlesville, Oklahoma died on Monday, June 7, 2021, at the age of 93. Isla was born to John M. Klatka and Julianna Lorchick on April 15, 1928, in Hamlet, Nebraska.
Isla married the late Frank Spencer in 1949. Her and her husband moved to Pawhuska, Oklahoma in 1951 with their firstborn daughter Judith, where Frank was editor, general manager, then publisher of Pawhuska Daily Journal Capital. Isla later had 7 more healthy children, as well as 10 grandchildren, and 9 great-grandchildren.
After establishing and running a loving home for her and Frank’s eight children, and after nourishing and seeing their last child well into his school years, in the later 1970s, Isla started a working life outside the home. She firstly worked part time at Wright’s Ready-to-Wear for women and then full time at J.C. Penny and Co in Pawhuska. By 50, she had entered a new phase of life and had become a fully independent working woman. Through the early 1980s she continued with J.C. Penny until its closure, and at 55 years she joined the new Walmart, which had opened in Pawhuska – she worked as the shoes manager until she transferred to the greater Walmart Store in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. She worked as shoes manager for 20 years and then became a door greeter the last 11 years. She remarkably went on to exceed a 30-year career with Walmart where she was widely known and greatly loved by colleagues and customers. She loved being around people and she opted to retire only at 87!!
Isla is preceded in death by her husband Frank Spencer, parents John Klatka and Julianna Lorchick, and siblings Lou, Ed, Clarence Klatka and Lorraine Stewart.
She is survived by children; Judith and Donald Vaughn of Lake Helen, Fla.; Linda Spencer of Bartlesville; Mark and Diana Spencer of Bixby, their daughter Jessica and spouse Deana Price and their five children, Ella, James, Maya, Ila, and Emerson; and daughter Julia with her son Jeremy; Margaret and Michael Bouvier of Bartlesville, and Margaret’s daughter, the first-born grandchild of Isla, Heather St. Peter and her husband Bryan Gawley of Scottsdale, Ariz.; Gregory Spencer and Ryan Stevens of Bartlesville, Gregory’s son Steven Spencer of Kansas City and daughter Kathryn and her husband David Chambers and their three daughters, Rhian, Elizabeth, Jacklyn from Chambers C Cross Ranch near Bartlesville; Bernadette Spencer and partner BJ Hargrave of Deland, Fla., and her son Spencer and Caroline Horsman of Baltimore, John Spencer of Forsyth, Mo., and his three daughters, Sarah and her partner Steven, Allie, Aria, and his son Killian Spencer, Isla’s youngest grandchild; and Eric Spencer and Gerard Cloete of Cape Town, South Africa; her niece Sylvia Parker and nephews Tony Klatka, Pat, Roger, Bruce, and Brian Stewart.
