BILLY BRUTON SPOONER

Billy Bruton Spooner, age 89, died August 29, 2017 at his home in Donalsonville following an extended period of fragile health stemming from a childhood accident which compromised his esophagus. The son of Delia Narcissus Jernigan and Lewis E. “Luke” Spooner, he was born in Seminole County on February 27, 1928. He graduated from Seminole High School and attended Norman Park College, where he was a stand-out on the football and wrestling teams. After college, he was engaged in farming with his father in the Lela community and other jobs before managing the Standard Oil Service Station (later Chevron) at the intersection of U.S. 84 and Tennille Avenue in Donalsonville. In 1962, he moved his family into Donalsonville, and he later owned and operated Spooner Oil Co. and West Fork Convenience Store. Before his health curtailed his activities, Billy was an astute woodsman and keen observer of nature. He was also valued for his droll sense of humor. On March 22, 1950, he married Betty Jane Coleman, who became the mother of their five children and his steadfast partner for the next 66 years until her death on April 15, 2016. Betty Jane was a native of Cuthbert and the daughter of Mary Ella Monfort and Roswell Andrew Coleman. Following her mother’s marriage to Carlton Douglas Thomas in 1940, she moved to Donalsonville where she became an active part of the community and a repository of detailed memories of people and events. In addition to his wife, Billy was preceded in death by a son, William Andrew, who died soon after birth in 1962. Siblings who also preceded him in death were Eron, Denver, Joe, Mary Jane, Lura, twins-Woodrow and Willard, and Luther. Billy is survived by four children who have rallied around him especially during the long months since Betty Jane’s sudden death. They are his son, Walter Bruton Spooner, and daughters, Mary Phyllis Spooner, Rebecca Charlotte Spooner Easom and husband Nick of Lawrenceville, and Delia Ann Spooner King and husband Randy; three grandchildren, Rebecca King Sheffield and husband Andrew of Colquitt, Andrew Skylar King and Bethany Nicole Easom of Lawrenceville and Athens, and two great-grandchildren, Brooklyn and Drew Sheffield of Colquitt. He is also survived by two brothers, Roger Hern Spooner of Iron City and Cecil Randolph Spooner and his wife Mary Ann of Stone Mountain and sisters-in-law, Mrs. Luther Spooner (Martha Nell), Mrs. Carlton Thomas, Jr. (Lucy), and Mrs. George O. Marshall, Jr. (Charlotte) of Athens. The family will receive friends and relatives at Evans-Skipper Funeral Home on Friday, September 1, 2017 at 10:00 AM, one hour prior to the service at 11:00 AM. The Rev. Joe Tatum will be officiating with interment to follow in Friendship Cemetery.