On Monday afternoon, November 20th, 2023, Victoria (Vikki) Speigner went to be with her Savior Jesus Christ. She passed away peacefully at her home in Issaquah, Washington with family members at her side. She had suffered a stroke the previous Tuesday which left her paralyzed on her left side and left her unable to swallow.
She is survived by her husband Jack, their three children; Jack, III of Corpus Christi, TX, Antoinette Santos of Rolling Meadows, IL, and Sean Speigner of Albuquerque, NM; six grandchildren and six great grandchildren, and her three brothers: Dennis Brady of Aloha, OR., Bruce Brady of Tampa, FL. and Richard Brady of Tucson, AZ;
Victoria was born on November 24, 1943 in Goshen, Indiana to Willie Louise and Victor Dale Brady. She was the eldest of five children.
She spent her childhood years in New Paris, Indiana, moving to Tucson, Arizona with her family when she was in the fifth grade. She was an active member of the Church of the Brethren in Indiana, but since there were no Churches of the Brethren in Tucson, she changed to the Baptist Church where she sang in the choir..
Vikki first met her future husband while in the eighth grade when his mother had enrolled him late in the school year after moving from Montgomery, Alabama to Tucson, Arizona. Vikki just happened to be walking by the principle’s office when he was coming out to take Jack to his first period class. The principle stopped her and said “Mis Brady, this gentleman is in your first period class, would you show him the way?” Vikki and Jack went on to participate in numerous high school activities together, and he was always good for a ride home, but she would not date him because: ”He was a nerd!”
She attended Pueblo High School and enjoyed her high school years participating in student body government, National Honor Society and as a majorette with the band. She was a member of Distributive Education Clubs of America where she was the DECA State winner for Extemporaneous Speaking. She graduated in May of 1961.
She was awarded a scholarship to the University of Arizona to study accounting but gave it up to help her parents, because her father had become unable to work due to injuries he suffered during World War II. She worked as a long-distance telephone operator for Mountain States Bell while in Tucson.
In the middle of what should have been her freshman year at the University, she reluctantly went on a date with Jack. Her mother worked in the cafeteria at Pueblo High School and knew many of the students. She was aware that Jack had asked Vikki to go out with him numerous times, and had even left flowers for her at home and in her car. So, when Jack called and asked to talk to Vikki in early February of 1962i, she pretended to be Vikki. And when Jack asked her to go to a church Valentines Day party, she accepted and insisted that Vikki go. Vikki never dated anyone else.
She and Jack were married a year later on January 12th,1963 in the middle of Jack’s sophomore year at the University. Vikki continued working as along distance operator to help Jack get through college, and the university awarded her a PhT (Putting hubby through) degree when Jack received his Bachelor of Science in Engineering Degree.
After they were married, she and Jack and her family lived in Tucson, Arizona until graduation in June 1966 when they relocated to Bellevue, Washington. Job opportunities took them to North Palm Beach Florida in 1970 with a couple of six-month temporary assignments to Palmdale and Lancaster, California thrown in before returning to Bellevue in 1974 where she found her dream home; the home that provided shelter for 46 years until 2020 when her health and care needs required that she and Jack move into an assisted living facility in Issaquah, Washington.
Vikki was a devoted wife and mother to her three children. She worked part time, but made sure she was always home when her children came home from school. She was often the neighborhood after school mother. She enjoyed supporting her children in all of their undertakings, especially sports. She would run back and forth between soccer and baseball games. One particular afternoon of note when Toni’s soccer game and Jack, III’s baseball games conflicted, she arrived at Jack, III’s game just as an opponent player was running from third to home and ran over Jack, III, who was the catcher, knocking him down. The umpire, after seeing that Jack, III was O.K, looked around for Vikki, and seeing her he raised his hand and “He’s out” calling the opposing player out.
She liked doing counted cross stitch, and designed many of her own patterns. Seventeen of her designs published in magazines on the subject and made available for others to do.. She also enjoyed genealogy research. She began researching her family genealogy in1978 before computers and the internet were available, and would go to the National Archives files at Sand Point Naval Air Station in Seattle to do research, spending hours looking at microfilm files.
Traveling was another of her life’s pleasures.. Opportunities arose for her to visit numerous locations in the US as well as in Asia and in Europe. Singapore and Slovenia were her favorites, but none could match her home.
Even though she never returned to college to pursue a degree in accounting, Vikki worked in accounting most of her working career. She worked for the CPA who had been the CPA for the Seattle World’s Fair, and for a number of years was in charge of keeping the books for Sears stores in Alaska. After Sears closed their accounting center in Redmond, Washington, she worked in medical billing for a group of doctors. She finished her working career at Space Labs Medical and retired in June of 2001.
She worried about not only her children, but all children. Shortly before she passed away, she asked Jack if the children had been fed yet.
A funeral service for Victoria will be held Wednesday, December 6, 2023 from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM at Sunset Hills Funeral Home, 1215 145th Place SE, Bellevue, Washington. Following the funeral service will be a graveside service at 12:00 PM at Sunset Hills Memorial Park, 1215 145th Place SE, Bellevue, Washington.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.11.3