Helen Spyker: Late entrepreneur, historian was ‘keeper of the story’
, 2022-12-24 13:22:57,
SHAWNEE TOWNSHIP – For decades, Helen Jean Spyker has shared the history of Allen County with anyone who will listen.
The late businesswoman, best known for her work at the Elmview Store and her successful opposition to Shawnee Township’s annexation to Lima, devoted her spare time to preserving Native American culture and local history, passing on stories few others knew or wanted. Tells.
Speicher, 98, passed away on Monday, December 13.
“She was the keeper of the story,” recalls her nephew, Jonathan Speicher. “This community has lost a voice, and now it’s coming to us to capture that voice and continue the story.”
Speicher defied expectations in a male-dominated era.
Born in 1924, Speicher never married or had children.
Instead, she immersed herself in Elmview Housewares, the family-owned grocery, hardware, and homeware store she founded with her brothers after World War II.
When her brothers divested their share of the family business in the 1950s, Speicher continued selling housewares at the Elmview Store, bringing in Hallmark welcome cards and eventually opening her own Hallmark store.
“She was a young woman in a man’s world,” said Jonathan Speicher. “She had to cut this out…
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