Anna Jo Spencer

On February 13, 2023, Anna Jo Taulbee Spencer left this world peacefully with her daughter at her side. She was born on September 30, 1937 to Bishop Brooks Taulbee and Ida Rakes in Mary, Kentucky (aka. Antioch). She is survived by her husband of 57 years, Kenneth Ray Spencer, her daughter Janarae Conway (Chris), her grandson Spencer Conway, all of Smiths Grove, Ky, her sister Carole Sue Collinsworth of Campton, Ky, and several nieces and nephews across the country. She was preceded in death by her parents and her brother Darrell Dudley Taulbee. She attended Eastern Kentucky University where she earned her teaching degree in Mathematics with a minor in English and Spanish. She taught math and literature at Wolfe County High School and Somerset High School. She left teaching after getting engaged and started working for the Public Assistance/Welfare office. She left her career to raise her daughter and to do what she loved; gardening, sewing, knitting, needlepoint, carpentry and crafting. She had the prettiest flowers around (according to a sister-in-law), and she could get more food out of a square foot that many could get out of an acre. She was a great seamstress. She made doll clothes that were better than many people's cloths. She made all the clothes for her immediate family until she could no longer do it. She was also a talented musician playing the piano, organ, guitar, accordion, and ukulele. She was a member of the United Methodist Church, but played organ for the Baptist church in Wolfe County.
There will be a memorial visitation from 4-7 p.m. on Tuesday, February 21, 2023 at Hardy & Son Funeral Home, Smiths Grove Chapel.
The family has requested no flowers but for donations to be made to Appalachian Artisan Center at artisancenter.net