Arlene Estelle Springe

Arlene Estelle Springe, 85, died of natural causes on August 27, 2020, in her Villa Park home, surrounded by her four children and the wife of her deceased son. Arlene was born in Chicago in 1935 to Alex and Barbara Mundo. Arlene married Fred Springe in Chicago in 1954. Fred passed away in 2004, a few months before their 50th wedding anniversary. She is survived by her daughters Debra Springe-Kilroy (John) of Orange and Barbara Kilroy (Jim) of Santa Barbara; sons Fred Jr. (Keyla) of Paso Robles and Erik (Stacey) of American Canyon; deceased son Kirk’s wife Suzan Springe of Riverside; 11 grandchildren; one great-grandchild; and her second husband Fred Whitaker. Arlene married Fred Whitaker in 2009. Arlene and Fred Springe moved to Baltimore soon after they were married. In 1957, the Springes moved to Culver City, California. The Springe family purchased their first home in 1959, in Anaheim. They moved to their current home in Villa Park in 1969. Arlene was a devoted mother, and a fabulous cook, known for offering individual members of her family whatever they wanted for breakfast each morning. When the children entered their late teens, Arlene volunteered to stand in line for them, as the kids were in school, in order to buy their tickets for rock concerts, always making new friends with the young people in line with her. Arlene and Fred Springe greatly enjoyed entertaining, and everyone always had great food and conversation at social events that the Springes hosted in their home. In 1987, Fred and Arlene moved to Australia for a year and a half for his job at Rockwell. She especially loved living in Sydney, where she had a view of both the famed Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Bridge. Arlene loved to travel throughout the world, and in the course of her life, visited countries in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Central and South America. She eventually implemented a plan, after Fred's death, to take each of her grandchildren on an international trip, and took grandchildren on tours of Australia, Italy, Germany, France and England. Arlene spent many years as a volunteer fundraiser for Anaheim Memorial Hospital, including time spent managing the hospital gift shop. She also served in several volunteer positions at Trinity Episcopal Church in Orange. Arlene was a voracious reader. She loved good food, and her extensive international travel made her very knowledgeable of international cuisine. For example, many of her family members and friends first learned details about sushi from Arlene and Fred, who discovered it on a 1972 trip to Japan. If Arlene recommended a restaurant, you could count it. In notes of condolence and in celebrating Arlene's life, her humor and 'sass' often come up, from grandchildren to children to friends. She had that wonderful Chicago way of being frank, irreverent and funny, all at the same time. Arlene focused raptly on the whole individual as you talked to her. She was always interested in what you had to say, always remembered your story and always welcomed hearing your latest news. Arlene was great fun to be around, and was very generous in her time and resources with family and friends. She lived a big life, working hard to raise five wonderful children, while also taking time to volunteer to help others. She taught everyone by example how to live life with many adventures, great food, great humor, great conversation and a lot of love. Her family and friends will miss the constant, warm beam of her love, and the great fun and joy of her company. Due to the pandemic, graveside services for Arlene will only be open to family members. A celebration of her life is planned for 2021, when we can all safely gather together again. In lieu of flowers, the Springe family requests donations be sent to Arlene's Team to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, https://pages.lls.org/ltn/ocie/orangeco20/team-arlene.

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