Robert Wallis "Bob" Spangler, 87, Harrisonville, Missouri, died February 11, 2015 at Crown Care Center in Harrisonville, Missouri. Visitation will be held from 6:00-8:00 p.m. Friday, February 13 at the Atkinson Funeral Home, Harrisonville, Missouri, with Masonic Service at 8:00 p.m. Funeral services will be held at 10:00 a.m. Saturday, February 14, 2015 at the Harrisonville United Methodist Church. Interment and Graveside services will be at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Englewood Cemetery in Clinton, Missouri. Donations in Bob's memory can be made to the Alzheimer's Foundation of America, 322 Eighth Ave., 7th Floor, New York, NY 10001.
The son of James Savage Spangler and Rubie Lindsay Spangler, Bob was born on February 26, 1927 on the Lindsay family farm in Henry County, Missouri. He graduated from Clinton High School in 1944, and served briefly in the U.S. Navy. He received his A.B. in Political Science from the University of Illinois in 1947 and his L.L.B. from the University of Missouri at Columbia in 1949.
He first practiced law in Clinton, Missouri with his cousin, the Honorable Charles A. Calvird. In 1955, he became associated with Leslie M. Crouch and L.M. Crouch, Jr. in the firm of Crouch, Crouch & Spangler in Harrisonville (now the firm of Crouch, Spangler & Douglas). He retired after practicing law for fifty-five years. He was licensed to practice in all the State Courts of Missouri, the United States Western District Court for the Western District of Missouri, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Interstate Commerce Commission, and was a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers. From 1955 to 1965, he served as city attorney for Harrisonville. Throughout his life, he continued to work as a rancher and farmer on the family farm in Clinton.
He is survived by his wife of over fifty-six years, Elizabeth Childs Spangler, Harrisonville, and their son, Robert Wallis Spangler II, Aiken, South Carolina, who is married to Susan L. Spangler. He is also survived by two children from a previous marriage: Lt. Col. Charles Gaines Spangler, Army (ret.), Bristow, Virginia, and The Very Rev. N. DeLiza Spangler (ret.), West Yarmouth, Massachusetts. He also leaves behind three grandchildren: Morgan Elizabeth Gaines Spangler, Matthew Ryan Spangler, and Adam Christopher Spangler, along with one great-grandchild, Heidi Elizabeth Spangler.
He was a member of Cass Lodge #147, AF&AM and other Masonic bodies including the Ararat Shrine, Alpha Tau Omega Social Fraternity and the Harrisonville United Methodist Church where he was a choir member for many years. He was a Past-President of the Harrisonville Lions Club, Past-Commander of Hurley Lee Spicer Post of the American Legion, Past-President of the Cass County Bar Association, a member of the Judicial Committee of the 17th Judicial Circuit, a member of the Missouri Integrated Bar, the Cass County Bar Association, the American Bar Association, and Phi Delta Phi Legal Fraternity. He also served as a Director of the Cass County Bank, Peculiar, Missouri and President of the Cass County Title Company, Harrisonville, Missouri.
He was preceded in death by all of his siblings: Sara Francis Schofield, Reuben Taylor (R.T.) Spangler, James Savage (Deedy) Spangler, Jr., and William Royston (Bill) Spangler.
