July 27, 1943 - July 30, 2023
Pearl Inez Speer
Pearl Inez Griffin Speer, age 80, of Milford, KS, passed away on July 30, 2023, in Gulfport, MS.
Pearl was born on July 27, 1943, in Guthrie, OK. Upon graduating from High School, she attended Oklahoma Baptist university where she earned her BA in Sociology in 1965. While in college she had the chance to travel to Europe for a summer and realized she wanted to find a way to continue traveling. Pearl soon joined the American National Red Cross to do social service work in the military hospitals with assignments in Texas, Japan, Vietnam, and Fort Sill, OK. While working in Fort Sill she met and married Bill Speer who was recovering from serious combat wounds. Bill was reassigned to Texas, so Pearl resigned from her job and quickly became a military wife. The two have lived in many different places including 2 tours in Germany and they moved over 15 times in 25 years.
Pearl held several jobs during these military tours, both volunteer and paid. On their lats assignment in Fort Riley, Kansas, she worked for the Army Community Service Department as Director of Family Support Activities. Her expertise in Family Support was soon modeled Army wide. In 2003, she was recognized as the Department of the Army Civilian Employee of the year. Pearl retired in 2005 as the Director of the Fort Riley Soldier and Family Support Center.
After retiring, they chose to live in the Fort Riley area and bought their retirement house in Milford, Kansas. However, Bill and Pearl soon became restless and bought a motor home to begin traveling in the USA. With extensive travel and RV tours, they traveled in the Midwest, South, and Southwest spending close to 200 days a year in their motor home. They spent many winter months on the southern coast and wintered in Corpus Christi, Texas then finally in Biloxi.
Pearl was preceded in death by her parents Kenneth and Eunice Griffin.
Pearl is survived by her loving husband, William Speer; her sons, Louis Speer (Rebecca) from Omaha, Nebraska, Chuck Speer (Kimberly) from Clinton, Missouri, and Casey Speer (Rachel), from Milford, Kansas; and her grandchildren, Jordan, Alex, Lukas, Logan, Griffin, Ellie, Chase, and Madison.
The funeral service will be at 11:00 a.m. Thursday, August 3, 2023, at Riemann Family Funeral Home, 274 Beauvoir Road, Biloxi, MS with the visitation starting at 10:00 a.m. for family and friends. Interment will be on a later date in the Kansas Veteran's Cemetery at Ft. Riley.