With joy for her long, love-filled life and sadness for our loss, the family of Reta Leota Springer shares her peaceful passing on November 20, 2025, at the age of 91. Leota lived her life with a gentle spirit, a quick smile, and a heart big enough to hold everyone she loved, including family, friends, and even the occasional stranger.
She is reunited in Heaven with her beloved husband, Robert “Bob” F. Springer, her parents, Onis and Lella Mae Ridgeaway, and her brothers, Willie Ridgeaway, Larry Ridgeaway, and Benny Joe Ridgeaway (Margie). We imagine she greeted them all with warmth, stories, and a bit of loving fussing, just enough to remind them she was back in charge of the hospitality.
Leota leaves behind a family who adored her: her sons Bill (Vickie) Springer and Tommy Springer, her grandsons Zach (Liz) Springer, Chad Springer, and Wynn Springer, her sisters-in-law Brenda Ridgeaway and Wynell Ridgeaway, and many nieces and nephews who will forever remember her kindness and warmth. Her great-grandsons, Tripp Springer and John Everett Springer, were the light of her late life, bringing her immeasurable joy, renewed energy, and endless stories she proudly shared with anyone willing to listen.
She cherished her faith and her church family at Anderson Church of Christ, and she carried her servant’s heart into every gathering, every visit, and every meal she prepared or shared.
A graveside service will be held a Grassy Cemetery and officiated by Evangelist David A. Cox of Market Street Church of Christ, where Leota will be laid to rest with the same grace and light she carried throughout her life. Her family invites all who knew her to remember her with laughter, kindness, and just a touch of gentle meddling, because that was her favorite way to show love.
