Alice Spann

Creativity and independence marked the life of long-time Norman resident Alice Sterling Spann, who died July 11, 2011 at 95, in a motor vehicle accident.

Mrs. Spann, or “Miss Alice,” as she was known by a legion of fellow Sooner Mall walkers and employees, began life in the small seafood village of Crisfield, Maryland, where she distinguished herself as a teen by her dramatic recitations of famous war poems at local parks on national holidays. “In Flanders Field” was her favorite, and she continued to recite it often for her family.

Her experience of war was not limited to poetry. Soon after the United States entered World War II, she became one of the nation’s first WAVE officers. To her amazement, she was assigned to Norman’s Naval Air Technical Training Center. She enjoyed recounting her reaction to this assignment. “I asked another officer,” ‘What’s in Oklahoma for the Navy?’ and he replied, ‘Well, I don’t know but it is a dry state, so take your liquor with you.’” She ran the WAVE department store on the South Base, and in 1941, met and married Lt. Commander Jerry Garland Spann.

The two liked Norman and settled here permanently to raise their four daughters: Toni Fuller, Jeri Spann, Susan Spann, and Cathy Spann.

In the late 1950s, she joined the professional staff of the University of Oklahoma’s educational radio station, WNAD, where she adapted award-winning children’s books into radio scripts that she narrated on air. She also acted in two independent films, did some commercial work for the Cain’s Coffee Company, and took a lead role in a public safety film.

After her husband’s death in 1968, she pursued academic studies in history at the University of Oklahoma and later ran continuing education programs for the university until her retirement at age 67.

She was an avid walker, and in the last decade of her life, developed a love of walking in Sooner Mall. She always carried a bag of candy bars with her to hand out to walker buddies and employees as she did an hour full of laps around the mall each day. On Friday afternoons, she loved volunteering at the gift shop of Norman Regional Hospital. Fascinated by national and state politics, she also volunteered for the local Democratic Party.

She was preceded in death by her five siblings: Vera Douglas, Suzanne Ashton, Elwood Sterling, Jr., Robert Sterling, and Edwin Sterling. She is survived by her four daughters and four grandchildren: Michael and Laura Fuller, Nathan Craig, and Vivian Olson.

Friends, family and neighbors are in invited to a reception at the Legends Restaurant at 1313 W. Lindsey in Norman on Sunday July 17th from 6-8 pm to honor and celebrate her life. In lieu of flowers the family is requesting a donation to the Norman Regional Auxiliary Hospitality House or Norman Regional Hospital Foundation be made in her memory.