Mildred Lange Spring

Mildred Lange Spring passed away on November 5, 2025. She was born in 1926 in a farmhouse in southwestern Minnesota to Edward Lange and Etta Rath Lange, the youngest of five siblings. She attended a one room schoolhouse near the family farm, at one time sharing her bedroom with her schoolteacher and sisters. She graduated from Ruthton High School in 1944 and then went on to Mankato State College for two years to earn her teaching credentials. After a few years of teaching she met William G. Spring, a WWII veteran. They were married in 1948 in Minneapolis, MN. In the following years they lived in a number of different locations, following Bill’s career path. In Chicago, their first son, Steven, was born. Then in Oklahoma City, their second son, Allan was born. And in Joplin, MO, their daughter, Janet, was born. The family then moved to Kansas City, MO. In 1968 the family left the Midwest and moved to Somerset, New Jersey. Her husband Bill died in 2002. After his death Mildred spent many years traveling the world and visiting all fifty states. On a trip to Mexico in 2004 she met Jack Rees and they were loving companions until Jack’s death in 2017. In 2019 Mildred left New Jersey and moved to Williamsburg, VA to be near her daughter and son-in-law. She was sharp as a tack to the end, proficient in online banking, enjoying the New York Times crossword puzzle, Wordle, and texting with her family.

Mildred was predeceased by her parents, Edward Lange and Etta Rath Lange, husband, William G. Spring, and her dear companion, Jack Rees. Also predeceased by her siblings, Inez Brooke, Donald Lange, Lavonne Erickson, and Elva Kubera.

She is survived by her sons Steven Spring (Betty), Allan Spring (Sunanda Singh), and daughter Janet Spring (Robert Oppecker.) Also by grandchildren Emily Spring (Kevin Fryling), Katie Spring, Daniel Oppecker (Dr. Claire Morgan), Michael Oppecker and great granddaughter Josie Fryling.

She will be sorely missed by all who knew her.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Williamsburg Regional Library.

The following is a tribute to Mildred from her pastor and friend of many years, Jeff Eaton:

MILDRED SPRING

“Spring” was not Mildred’s birth name, but the word aptly describes her. In the many years that I knew Mildred, she exhibited the new growth that marks the season of spring, the emergence of new life and color and flourishing. She was always inquiring, searching to better understand the world around her, open to newness of life, and for those who knew her a source of newness of life. In my experience, she was young with the best of youth, even when she was older and old.

I came to know Mildred in the church in New Brunswick, New Jersey to which she belonged and of which I was pastor. I knew about her struggles and her joys. She was a woman who was committed to joy and wished joy to the world, and did what she could to communicate that joy to others. She did not take herself too seriously, she was serious about things like diversity and equity and inclusion, because she cared about growth and flourishing as the appropriate responses to the gift of life.

In my experience, Mildred lived by the grace that the Christian faith understands to be the nature of God, a generosity of spirit that is at the heart of compassion and the calling of the Christian faith. She was committed to the church, but her commitment was not parochial. She understood that the measure of the church is its love for the creatures of creation, the beauty of nature and the promise of a world where love is more possible for all persons. That is its mission, its reason for being, and that is why she was there.

Winter is approaching. A cultural winter has been with us in the United States for quite some time in the sense that grace and mercy and peace have been repressed by greed and the lust for power. We pray that this winter will run its course and that a spring will come to the nation. As we go through this period, we are especially grateful to those in our lives who keep the hope of spring alive in difficult times, one of whom was Mildred Spring, who we miss but who is not gone from us, and for whose life we say thanks be to God.

-Jeffrey Eaton