Eugene Spencer

Eugene "Gene" Spencer, Jr., passed away in Texas City on November 30, 2021. He was born in Pittsburg, Texas, on September 2, 1926, to Florence Pollard Spencer and Eugene Spencer, Sr. Gene graduated from Hillsboro High School and attended the University of Texas.

Gene started working at G. W. Hetherington Jewelers in Texas City as buyer and manager and spent 42 years there helping hundreds of Texas City and surrounding area brides with their wedding selections of china, crystal, and silver and hundreds of husbands and boyfriends with their gifts of jewelry for their wives and girlfriends.

Gene was a survivor of the 1947 Texas City explosion. He was at Hetherington's when the blast blew out the entire front of the store. He aided in identifying fatalities by the watch or the ring that the person may have worn that day. Hetherington's kept registration numbers of the watches they sold which were used to identify some of the victims.

Gene was preceded in death by his mother, Florence Spencer, his father Eugene Spencer, Sr., his Aunt Flora (Polly) Pollard and grandparents. He has no surviving relatives but does leave many friends, including special friends Otis Carrell, Carla Carlin, Glenn Miller, Donald "Herk" Van Alystne, Benjy Busbee, and Judge Gladys Burwell.

Visitation will be at Emken Linton Funeral Home in Texas City on Friday, December 3, at 5:00 p.m., with a service officiated by Father Clint Ressler at 6:00 p.m. Burial will be at Galveston Memorial Mausoleum in Hitchcock on Saturday, December 4, 2021, at 11:00 a.m.

Gene requested that in lieu of flowers any remembrances be made to Memorial Library in Texas City.