Spencer, Helen Foresman, 1902-1982.

Helen Elizabeth Foresman was born in Joplin, Missouri on November 8, 1902 to Frank Wade and Frances Foster Foresman. She attended elementary school in Amarillo, Texas, and high school in Pittsburg, Kansas, followed by study at the University of Kansas. She married Kenneth Aldred Spencer on January 6, 1927. They first resided in Pittsburg, where Mr. Spencer was employed in his father's Pittsburg & Midway Coal Mining Company. In 1940, they moved to Kansas City, where Mr. Spencer founded the Spencer Chemical Company.

In 1949, Kenneth and Helen Spencer established a foundation for charitable giving that in 1961 was named the Kenneth A. and Helen F. Spencer Foundation. Kenneth Spencer died in 1960, leaving Helen Spencer sole owner of the Spencer Chemical Company. In 1963, she oversaw its sale to Gulf Oil Corporation as Gulf's Spencer Chemical Division. As President and Director of the Kenneth A. and Helen F. Spencer Foundation from 1960 until its dissolution in 1979, Mrs. Spencer ensured that the Foundation's charitable contributions served the purposes which she and her husband had envisioned for advancement of the arts, sciences, and education within the Kansas City region.

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