Mary Spencer DeGroot

February 12, 1934-February 18, 2022

Mary Spencer DeGroot, 88, passed away peacefully, surrounded by love. She was born in Pomeroy, Ohio to Henry and Edna Spencer in 1934. Before moving to Colorado, Mary worked on the family’s farm and sawmill. Mary was fiercely independent moving across the country to settle in Fountain Colorado, not knowing anyone in the community. She married Raymond L. DeGroot in 1955. That same year Mary and Raymond bought one of the first houses in the Range View neighborhood near downtown Fountain Colorado.

Mary deeply loved her family and the Fountain community. She was a fierce proponent of equality in all of its many forms. She worked and fought hard for her daughters, neighbors, family, schools, and larger community. The world needed changing and Mary thought she could help it along. She was a spitfire tomboy whose passions, and dare we say, stubbornness for equality spread like wild fire.

Almost everything in the Fountain community was touched by Mary’s involvement and her “oh, how hard can it be” spirit. After 66 years as a resident of Fountain, Mary accomplished many things, including: Member of the Fountain City Council, Member of the Fountain Park Board, Founding Member and Past President of the Fountain Valley Historical Museum, Board Member of the Fountain Downtown Events & Activities (FDEA), a Volunteer for numerous Fountain Labor Day parades, including distributing candy while dressed as Donald Duck, initiated Fountain summer recreation programs for schoolchildren and finally, Mary was a jelly, marmalade, and candy maker extraordinaire. In her spare time, she loved woodworking and fixing almost anything.

Mary is survived by her five daughters: Helen (Bunnie) Gray, Gail DeGroot, Leona Hodges, Laura Floyd, and Henrietta DeGroot Moore. She was blessed with 12 grandchildren: Lisa Sheets, Deborah Gray Baker, Renee Gray Whitley, Tanner, Trenton and Nathaniel Hodges, Michael, Alexander and Logan Floyd, and Avery, Cameron, and Eris Moore. Mary was further blessed with eleven great-grandchildren, three great-great-grandchildren, and lots of nieces and nephews. Mary was preceded in death by her husband Raymond L. DeGroot, her parents, and all five of her siblings, Elson Spencer, Dayton Spencer, Waid Spencer, Avis Spencer Bing, and Vance Spencer.

A public viewing will be held on Friday, February 25 from 5-7 pm at Dove-Witt Funeral Home, Fountain. Graveside services will be held at 11 am, Fairview Cemetery in Fountain, on Saturday, February 26, immediately followed by a Memorial Service at 11:30 am at the First United Methodist Church of Fountain. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the First United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 607, Fountain, CO 80817.