Born December 11, 1934, died Aug. 21, 2022, in McKinleyville, at the age of 87 years and 8 months.

Barbara was born in Eureka to Erwin and Anna Papke. She was the third of four siblings. She attended Saint Bernard’s Catholic Grammar school and Eureka High School, graduating in 1952. She married Gerald (Jerry) L. Spellenberg in June 1955. She met Jerry at a dance at the Loleta Firemen’s Hall in December of 1952. Her sister, Julia, introduced them after deciding he was not the one for her. Barbara was 18 at the time, having just had her birthday one week before the fateful dance. They celebrated 67 years of marriage in of June of this year.

She loved animals and gardening. She was that girl who always wanted a horse, and that dream came true at age 28. Her first horse was Ginger, a sorrel mare. Over the years several other horses came through the family, Red, Shorty, Trampas, Georgia, and lastly, Dilly. She was a life member of the Northern California Horsemen’s Association and enjoyed camping with family and friends at Cuneo Creek Horse Camp near Dyerville., and attending rodeos with her daughters, Lisa and Lesley who were members of Pegasus Patrol Drill team during their high school years. In addition, every summer she would take her four children plus a friend and/or a cousin to Showers Pass and we’d camp for two weeks at the end of August. We often stayed at the cabin on Jerry’s Uncle Russell’s ranch, or at the Spellenberg family property called Rottenwood, camping in an old WWII army surplus tent. Jerry would come for the weekends after work but the rest of the time it was mom and the kids. We had wonderful times riding the horses, fishing and floating down the Mad River, and playing cards. War was a favorite card game. She was a farmer at heart, raising vegetables, chickens, ducks, and rabbits.

Later in life she always had a small vegetable garden until she broke a hip and could no longer get down in the dirt. We kids would pick blackberries each summer, and mom would make blackberry jelly and pies. She and dad travelled a bit after dad retired. They took a road trip around the western United States, visited Baja, Mexico with their friends while camping along the way in their travel trailers, visited Hawaii with her sister Norma and husband Bill, took several trips to Germany to visit her cousins near Frankfurt and attend reunions with Jerry’s distant cousins near the Black Forest, and toured Guatemala with daughter, Lisa and friends. The last big trip was on their 60th wedding anniversary, traveling by cruise ship to Alaska with the family. She enjoyed her Friday night ladies dinner group with Peggy, Shirley, Joy, Cathy, Janet, and daughters Lisa and Lesley and also their monthly potluck and pinochle games.

She is survived by her husband Gerald, her four children, Lisa, Lesley, James (Teena) and Gerald Louis (Debbie), her seven grandchildren: Mark (Sammee), Stacy (Mike), Rachelle (Larry), Jamee, Jessica (Robert), Jason, and Katie (Rob), and her six great-grandchildren: Aria, Melina, Daxton, Blythe, Carter, and Granger, and her two sisters, Julia (John) DeMartini, and Norma Dye, and nieces and nephews: Michele, Paul, Jean, Angela, Jack, Cathy, Eric, Jeff, Denise, Robert, Carrie, Penny, and Sandy, as well as cousins and friends too numerous to list. She was preceded in death by her parents Anna and Erwin, her brother William Papke (aka Uncle Buddy), her brother-in-law Bill Dye, and sister-in-law Patricia Costa and niece Dana.

At her request, no funeral services were held. Please remember the good times you enjoyed with Barbara and know that she enjoyed each and every one of her family and friends.

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Barbara Spellenberg’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.