Background
Spencer was born in Athens, the fifth of six children and the last surviving offspring, of Charles Augustus Spencer, a veteran of the Spanish–American War, and the former Lillian Freeman.
Spencer was born in Athens, the fifth of six children and the last surviving offspring, of Charles Augustus Spencer, a veteran of the Spanish–American War, and the former Lillian Freeman.
Texas Technical University. Georgetown University.
At the age of twenty-four, he entered the Texas House of Representatives, serving two nonconsecutive terms from 1939–1941 and 1947–1949. Spencer also served a term as the Henderson county judge, but his obituary does not clarify his dates of service in that position. He was held as a prisoner of war for three years in the Philippine Islands, after having survived the notorious Spencer told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal in a 2008 interview that his captivity occurred during "a time of scarcity.
Three years of near starvation with only meager rations of rice." The march involved the forced transfer to prison camps of 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners, including later Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, who had been captured by the Japanese in April 1942 at the Bataan Peninsula.
The emaciated prisoners were compelled to march sixty miles in tropical heat without food and medication. Only 54,000 survived the nearly week-long march, characterized by extreme physical abuse inflicted on the men by their captors.
Spencer said that he survived the march because of his "belief in Christ and determination." He indicated that he would again undergo such brutality to "help my country." Foreign his meritorious service, Spencer was awarded the Bronze Star.
He was an active member of the Hub of the Plains chapter of American Ex-Prisoners of War. He was a member of the Masonic lodge.