Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Rebecca "Bucky" Spicer 1929-2019

Meaninfulfunerals.net

Rebecca Hanna Spicer (Bucky) died on January 9, 2019 at Homewood of Crumland Farm in Frederick, Maryland. Her husband, John S. Spicer, Sr., predeceased her on June 3, 2017. She was born in Franklin, Pennsylvania on October 2, 1929. She was the daughter of Rebecca Sponsler and John Richard Hanna. Bucky’s first six years were spent in Franklin where she fell in love with horses. Her grandfather, John Lindsay Hanna, was business manager for the Sibley Estates, where they would let Bucky ride one of the team horses at lunch time.

In 1936 her father was transferred to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with Atlantic Refining Company, then she grew up in that area. She attended the Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania then attended the Ambler branch of Temple University where she majored in agriculture and acquired her first German Shepherd. She made her social debut in Philadelphia in 1947.

When her parents moved to Sewickley, Pennsylvania, she fox hunted several years with the Sewickley Hunt Club. She then attended Penn State and became a milk tester. She traveled the state with her dog Brandy, doing advanced registry and AHR testing. Wanting to stay in one place, she became a Dairy Herd Information Association (DHIA) tester for Adams County, Pennsylvania where she met her future husband. During that year she was whipper-in for the Beaufort Hunt Club in Harrisburg.

She was then head of the riding department at the Gunston School in Centreville, Maryland and head of the riding department at Happy Valley Camp in Port Deposit, Maryland, always accompanied by her dog.

In 1955 she married John Stephen Spicer of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. They spent the first year of their married life at the farm he managed with his father and brother before moving to Sewickley, Pennsylvania for three years. Daughters Susan Rebecca and Sara Stephenie were born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. John was transferred to Bowling Green, Kentucky where Bucky established herself as the first female real estate agent in Bowling Green, and where son John Stephen, Jr. was born.

John was transferred back east where the family settled in Frederick, Maryland. Bucky became a real estate agent with Baker Kefauver before becoming a residential sales manager for Paul Ganley. During this time, she was on the Altar Guild at All Saints Episcopal Church and was also the Organizing Regent for the Carrollton Daughters of the American Revolution.

In 1969 the family moved to a farm in Woodsboro, Maryland, which they named Johnny-Reb Farm. Bucky became a whipper-in for Carrollton Hounds and then for the New Market Hunt Club. She was the first female director of the Maryland Angus Association. Bucky hosted the first handicapped riding program in Frederick County.

During those wonderful years with the children in Pony Club and 4-H, school and college, she bred and showed thoroughbred horses and even showed an Angus bull at the Frederick Fair. She started her competitive trail riding era in 1975 with horses Pywacket, Admiral Boy and Dagget. In 1992 she acquired an Arabian gelding named Bart (Caynga Vartan). The two of them won numerous championships and had over 6,000 miles in competition, besides the thousands of miles during training and pleasure rides. A highlight was when they completed the Old Dominion 100 mile one-day endurance ride. Bart won the Arabian Horse Association’s Legions of Honor, Supreme Honor, and Excellence, and was Horse of the Year before Cushing and Lyme disease forced him into retirement. He died on June 23, 2014...

Read more here:
https://www.meaningfulfunerals.net/obituary/rebecca-spicer?lud=C7FED18AF9B0ACA549762119F5074716&fh_id=15658&fbclid=IwAR2fpy-BHmOxMY-t5UdDboluAF6vUNa5UNt8fOPvW5dyQrNzntV4-LwtzBA

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