Mrs. Margaret "Kit" Spencer Humphries passed away on Jan. 3, 2023 in Green Valley, Arizona after a short illness. She was 95.

During her long life, Kit took on many different roles -- wife, mother, elementary school art teacher, award-winning watercolor artist, tennis player, world traveler and community leader, to name a few.

She was born Margaret Kittredge Spencer on Jan. 2, 1928 in Orange, New Jersey, to businessman Joseph W. Spencer III and Helen Pugh Spencer. The family moved to Ohio and she grew up in the Cleveland area. She was a 1946 graduate of Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut, where her classmates included future First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier; and a 1950 graduate of Oberlin College, where she majored in art and met both of her future husbands.

Kit married Arthur Nelson Cherry on Dec. 9, 1950 in Kirtland, Ohio. They lived in Elyria, and Akron, Ohio, and Philadelphia before settling in Iowa in 1957. In the early years of their marriage, Kit worked as an "opaquer," touching up printing flaws in the lithography industry. The couple relocated in 1957 to Iowa City, where Kit became a full-time homemaker raising two children. When her youngest child entered pre-school, Kit started taking classes at the University of Iowa to earn a teaching certificate. She went boldly back to college amid the hippie era, feminist movement and other upheavals of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Then the family moved to Clinton, Iowa, where Kit worked full-time as an elementary school art teacher from 1972 to 1990 -- back when 13 local grade schools were packed with Baby-Boom youngsters and Clinton's population was at its peak. She was promoted to elementary art coordinator for the entire school system and continued to teach and inspire young artists in the classroom while supervising and mentoring other art teachers. At various times during her 18-year teaching career, she taught at every Clinton elementary school and was very popular with kids all around the city.

Kit was a talented artist and member of the prestigious Iowa Watercolor Society. Her paintings were accepted into juried regional art shows and exhibited in galleries in Iowa, Wisconsin and Arizona. They also hang in many private collections. She continued creating art for the rest of her life and became very proficient at colored pencil drawings in her final years. Kit also supported the arts as a long-time volunteer for the Clinton Art Association/River Arts Center, Art in the Park outdoor fine-arts festival in Clinton, and the Tubac Center of the Arts in Arizona.

She married Fred Leslie Humphries on July 29, 1989, in Clinton, Iowa, starting a whole new chapter in her life. She embraced her new blended family, which included four stepchildren. Kit and Les soon moved to Green Valley, Arizona, where they enjoyed playing tennis and became founding members of the Good Shepherd United Church of Christ. Summers were spent at their cabin in Door County, Wisconsin. They both loved to travel and took many trips overseas. In retirement, Kit even earned a pilot's license so she and Les could take to the skies flying small airplanes together!

After Les passed away in 2003, she moved into the La Posada retirement community in Green Valley. She served on the residents' council, co-managing the resident artwork installations and even helping create an Asian garden. An avid traveler, Kit continued to visit many states and countries, crossing the globe to go as far as Argentina, China and Ireland. Her journeys inspired her to paint the faraway places that she visited, and she even spent days sketching in the famous gardens of impressionist painter Claude Monet in France.

Kit is survived by two children, Kittredge Lynne Cherry (Audrey Lockwood) of Los Angeles, CA; and Craig Spencer Cherry (Anne Lawrence-Cherry) of Lenexa, KS; and three stepchildren, Deborah Cox (Ernie Cox Jr.) of Green Valley, AZ; Steve Humphries (Joey) of Omaha, NE; and Mitch Humphries (Katy) of Sturgeon Bay, WI; 11 grandchildren and many great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents, three brothers, both husbands, and a stepdaughter, Rebecca Petschke (Chris Petschke). Kit enjoyed a full life, remarkable longevity and good health until her final week. She had many friends at every stage of her life. Throughout her lifetime and even in her final days, she overcame many challenges and faced every new encounter with a cheerful attitude and a sunny spirit.

Interment will be at Good Shepherd United Church of Christ Columbarium in Sahuarita, Arizona. Memorial arrangements are pending.