Patricia Brennan Spohr
ALTAMONT — Patricia Brennan Spohr taught children and loved books. She followed those passions to create a sense of community in the village where she lived for over half a century.
Mrs. Spohr died “peacefully at home on July 4th, 2024 amid the sound of fireworks,” her family wrote in a tribute. She was 85.
Her son and only child, Jeremy Spohr, remembers as a young teenager growing up on Prospect Terrace in Altmont that he complained to a neighborhood friend about his mother harassing him over homework.
“She said, ‘Your mom is like SuperMom. She does everything.’”
So much for a sympathetic ear. “She corrected me,” Mr. Spohr recalled of his boyhood neighbor.
Born on Jan. 1, 1939 in Rhinebeck, New York, Mrs. Spohr was the daughter of Lillian (née Pinkman) and James Brennan of Stanfordville in Dutchess County, New York.
Her mother blazed a trail Mrs. Spohr would follow: Mrs. Brennan had taught in a one-room school and for decades was a library board member in Stanfordville.
Her father was a machinist at IBM and was an avid hunter, fisherman, and trapper. “She did a lot of those with him,” said Jeremy Spohr.
Patricia was the big sister to Margaret Anne and Judith. The Brennan family was not wealthy but comfortable, Mr. Spohr said. They lived in a rural area where the hunting dogs they kept were not pets.
“They were working dogs but were always around,” said Mr. Spohr.
After graduating from Pine Plains High School, Mrs. Spohr left for college in another rural area. She graduated in 1960 from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh where she made many friends as she studied to be a teacher.
“She always went back to her reunion,” including her 50th college reunion, her son said.
Not long after graduation, she met the man who would be her husband, Thomas R. Spohr, at a New Year’s Eve party in Stanfordville. The couple married that summer, on Aug. 25, 1962.
Their union lasted for almost 54 years, ending only with Thomas Spohr’s death on June 25, 2016, at age 82.
Jeremy described his parents’ relationship as traditional. “They were good partners,” he said. “They liked antiques, art shows, working on the yard, and restoring furniture together.”
“They weren’t baby boomers,” he said. “My parents were from the silent generation.” They were born during the Great Depression and were children during World War II, he noted.
The couple raised their son on Prospect Terrace and later moved to Sand Street in the village. Their home was filled with antiques they had restored.
Mrs. Spohr, who had minored in art in college, loved to paint. She belonged to a painting group at St. John’s Church for decades, her son said.
The group would travel to the Massachusetts shore to paint seascapes. The entry to the Spohrs’ home, he said, had a sign that said “Art Gallery” and every bit of the walls were covered with oil paintings.
The Spohr family worshiped at St. Lucy’s Church in Altamont. “That’s where I was confirmed and baptized,” said Mr. Spohr.
But Mrs. Spohr had a wide range of friends in Altamont in the Reformed and Lutheran churches as well, including a deep friendship with the Lutheran minister and his wife, Keen and Marjorie Hilton; the Spohrs bought the Hiltons’ house on Sand Street from them in a handshake deal.
Mrs. Spohr had many other close friends, including sister teachers.
“She could be very blunt and outspoken but also kind and friendly and talkative,” said her son. “She could be opinionated but was also open to a wide range of people.”
Mrs. Spohr started her teaching career in Guilderland at Westmere Elementary School. After her son was born in 1971, she stayed home to raise him, returning to full-time teaching, at Altamont Elementary School, in 1984.
“For my whole life, grown men would come up to her and say, ‘Hi, Mrs. Spohr,’” her son recalled. “She had children of children she taught.”
He recalled his mother telling him of a father, a successful salesman, irate with his hyperactive 5-year-old son, a student of Mrs. Spohr.
“What’s wrong with him?” the father asked Mrs. Spohr.
“He’s just like you,” she calmly replied to the father who had once been her student. “Don’t worry. He’ll be fine. The apple does not fall far from the tree.”
Throughout her life, Mrs. Spohr loved to read, her son said, and she cared about the library “for the public good.”
“We always had a lot of books in our house,” her son said and he, himself, became an avid lifelong reader.
While Jeremy and his father preferred reading history, Mrs. Spohr’s reading was eclectic, her son said.
During the pandemic shutdown, “she really got into mysteries,” her son said. The director of the Altamont Free Library, Joe Burke, would bring her bags full of books to read during the pandemic.
She never told him what to bring, Mr. Spohr said. “Joe knows what I like,” she’d say.
Mrs. Spohr had served on the library’s board for decades. “She was, most agree, the driving force behind the purchase of the Altamont Train Station in 2005, which represented the culmination of nearly 20 years of advocacy on her part to make that purchase,” Mr. Burke said this week.
The tribute written by Mrs. Mrs. Spohr’s family echoed that theme, saying, “She served for many years on the board and multiple years as president of the Altamont Free Library. She was instrumental in the vision, development, and relocation of the library to Altamont’s historic train station.”
Mrs. Spohr’s family described her as “a staunch advocate for the accessibility of books and the sense of community that a strong local library provides.”
“She was a force of nature, and will be much missed,” said Mr. Burke.
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Patricia Brennan Spohr is survived by her son, Jeremy Spohr, his wife, Hiroyo Saito; her niece, Carla Jones; and her sister in-law, Adella Spohr, along with many, many nieces and nephews.
Her husband of 54 years, Thomas R. Spohr, died before her, as did her sisters, Margaret Anne (Annie) Luty and Judith Brennan.
“Our family would like to express gratitude to her trusted caregivers, Justina Pendleton and Barbara Haines, and to the many friends and neighbors in Altamont who supported Pat’s life over the years,” the tribute said.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Altamont Free Library, 179 Main St, Altamont, NY 12009.
A celebration of life will be announced at a later date. Burial will be private.
— Melissa Hale-Spencer