Eleanor Murrill Sparkman, 99, died after a short illness Nov. 28, 2014.
She was the daughter of Marguerite Yon and Daniel Webster Murrill. Her mother died when Mrs. Sparkman was an infant, and Clara DeVane became her beloved stepmother. Raised on a strawberry farm in Plant City, she was the oldest of six siblings and is preceded in death by Wallace Murrill, Janet Liedstrand, Frank Murrill and Edna Erickson.
Her proudest achievement as a teenager was being elected president of the 4-H Club council for the state of Florida. Mrs. Sparkman graduated from the Florida State College for Women with a teaching degree in Home Economics. She married Bascom Walden Sparkman, of Plant City, in 1937, and their daughter, Susanne, was born in 1943. Mrs. Sparkman’s teaching career spanned 37 years in Tampa, where she was a home economics teacher, school counselor and Dean of Girls. Most of her retirement years were spent in her treasured mountain cabin in Franklin, North Carolina. After her husband’s death in 1984, Mrs. Sparkman continued to travel, visiting every continent except Antarctica. Her last 17 years were spent at Huntcliff Summit, an independent retirement community in Roswell, Georgia, where she became, according to another resident, “a role model for aging gracefully.” She is survived by her daughter, Susanne (Robert) Newell; and siblings, Wanda DeVane and Clinton Murrill.