BERNE — Richard Earle Spensley was a musician, reader, survivor, and a caring father and grandfather. He died on Monday, March 27, 2017, in Florida, where he lived. He was 76.

“He was a really great man,” said his daughter, DiDi Spears. “With a good sense of humor and a good soul.”

Mr. Spensley was born on Jan. 29, 1941, to the late Earle and Pearl Spensley, and grew up in East Berne. He graduated from Berne-Knox-Westerlo High School in 1959, and immediately joined the Marine Corps, serving until 1964.

“I think he had needed some direction in his life at the time,” said his daughter. She explained that Mr. Spensley’s father had died when he 17.

After serving in the military, he traveled west, to places like California and Hawaii, with his first wife, Marilyn Spensley.

Mr. Spensley loved music, and taught classical guitar on the mountain, said his daughter.

“He just picked one up and, I believe, he taught himself,” she said, of his own learning to play the guitar.

In the Hilltowns, he and his friends, Reid and Bobbi Northrup, started a band called the New Arkansas Travelers. With Mr. Spensley helping to arrange music and write songs, the three produced a record, and then went on tour throughout the Capital Region. His daughter said the band played honky-tonk music.

“He had lots of good times with lots of good friends,” said his daughter, of his time in the Hilltowns.

Mr. Spensley worked as an electronic technician, but retired early due to a hang-gliding accident in 1975 that left him paralysed.

He was in the hospital for about a year, said his daughter, where he was told he would never walk again.

She said he then told the doctors there: “You teach me how to walk or I’m gonna die.”

Within the year he was at the hospital, he learned to walk again.

“He fought his way back,” said his daughter.

Shortly after, he moved to Florida and for some time spent half a year there and half a year staying with the Northrups. In 1985, he moved to Florida permanently. He lived in New Smyrna Beach with his second wife of over 30 years, Margaret (née Midge) Northrup, and his daughter and her children living nearby.

He was a loving father, said Mrs. Spears.

“He gave me away at my wedding, I danced with him,” she said.

Mrs. Spears said her father was not only caring to her, but also to her grandchildren. He taught his granddaughter how to ride a unicycle by buying her an instructional video and the unicycle, and would take her to a spot by the water near the local library where she could practice. He also would care for his grandson by himself.

He was an avid reader, and volunteered at the Edgewater Public Library near New Smyrna Beach. Mrs. Spears said, if a book didn’t contain murder and blood within the first few pages, he didn’t find it worth reading.

The last movie he requested to see was “Deepwater Horizon,” said his daughter, not only for its thrilling plot but also for its depiction of mankind’s effect on the environment.

“He was a huge naturalist,” she said. He hated the process of hydraulic fracturing and kept his lawn bare, saying, “Whatever grows, grows; whatever doesn’t, doesn’t.”

He also enjoyed walking to the beach nearby, and going to flea markets.

His favorite singer was Emmylou Harris, and shortly before he died he asked to have her song “No Regrets” played. He preferred genres like bluegrass and older country music, but he really liked all kinds of music, said his daughter.

His family asks mourners to play an Emmylou Harris song in his memory.

****

Richard Earle Spensley is survived by his wife, Margaret (née Midge) Northrup; his daughter DiDi  Spears and her husband, Tim; his grandchildren; and his great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be on Monday, April 3, at 2 p.m. at the Halifax Health-Hospice Care Center Edgewater, on 4140 South Ridgewood Ave., Edgewater, Florida 32141.

— H. Rose Schneider