Phyllis was born in Detroit on September 11, 1922 and raised in Elk Rapids by her parents Alfred Fred and Anna Marie Meyer from 1930. She graduated from Elk Rapids High School in 1941 and attended Michigan State College the following year. It was early WWII days, and she left college to go to Detroit and work for Briggs Mfg. Company, making wing flaps for B-17 bombers. As the war intensified, she enlisted in the Army Air Force and was stationed at Drew Field in Tampa, Florida. It was there that she met Paul T. Spelman, a B-17 navigator, and they married in March of 1945
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The Meyer presence in Elk Rapids goes back a century. Phyllis’ grandfather, Henry Gustav Meyer, worked for the Elk Rapids Iron Company and purchased a house built by the company for their workers in 1890. The area was three streets wide in east Elk Rapids, close to the company furnaces on Furnace Street, now called Rivershore. Henry raised eight children in that house. A fire destroyed the upper floor, and he moved back to Detroit, but returned with son Alfred and family in 1930 to restore it. That
house, named Eastlawn, has been a source of many fond memories for Phyllis, her children and grandchildren.
Phyllis was preceded in death by her parents, her husband and two grandsons. She is survived by her four children, a brother, an aunt, six grandchildren and many great-grandchildren. Phyllis was feisty, and many of her survivors will keep her spirit going for generations to come.
Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.CovellFuneralHomes.com for the Spelman family.
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