Ann Lydia Spencer

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Ann Lydia Spencer, a 40-plus year resident of Bath and Brunswick, died May 17, 2024 at the home of her mother in Colorado Springs, Colo. She was born in Portland, to Jessie Margaret Kuhn Spencer and Robert Wilson Spencer on July 21, 1952.

The family moved to Dallas, Texas where Ann finished high school. After marrying Jim Harnar, the U.S. Navy sent them to the San Diego, Calif. area and she completed her B.S. The couple was moved to Brunswick where Jim was stationed at the Brunswick Naval Air Station. The couple later divorced.

Ann found work primarily in the field of Human Relations and loved exploring the woods and waters of Maine. Ann was an active member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Brunswick where she held a number of leadership roles. She was elected to the national board of the Unitarian Universalist Association, serving for several years. Ann found an outlet for her joy in choral singing in the UUCB choir, Oratorio Chorale, Tapestry Singers and Sheepscot Community Chorus. She was an excellent seamstress and knitter.

For the past several years, Ann spent summers in Maine and the rest of the year with her mother in Colorado. Following her cancer diagnosis, she moved permanently to Colorado Springs, Colo., where she lived her last months.

She was preceded in death by her father, Robert W. Spencer; baby brother, David William Spencer; her stepfathers Donald E. King and Paul E.G. Major.

She is survived by her mother Jessie M. (nee Kuhn) Spencer King Major; brother, William Allen Spencer of California; stepmother, Virginia (Walker) Lichtenstein; half-sister, Alice Spencer; six stepsiblings; aunts; and 13 first cousins in the U.S., Canada and Panama. In learning all she could about her heritage, she savored visits with her extended family in Canada and the US.

From a poem, “Success” by Bessie Anderson Stanley, 1904: She “lived and loved and laughed and left.” likely saying, “See you next time!”