From single mother to ‘Fab Five,’ Prescott’s Carol Springer leaves behind singular legacy
Updated as of Friday, August 17, 2018 6:46 AM
If there was new ground to be broken in Prescott over the past half-century or so, Carol Springer was the woman to do it.
From her home life, where she raised five children virtually on her own, to the business world, where she launched a successful local real-estate company, to the political realm, where she served in a myriad of state and local roles, Springer forged an extraordinary path throughout the 1970s, '80s, '90s, and early 2000s.
Springer, who called Prescott her home for 45 years, died Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018, in her home, surrounded by family. She was 81.
Photo Gallery
Carol Springer Through The Years
Long-time local politician Carol Springer, who died on Aug. 9, 2018, had an adventurous side, including riding motorcycles, flying airplanes, and world-wide travel, her children say. Here, she rides a motorcycle on a family trip to the Oregon coast in about 1978. (Courtesy/Springer family)
Long-time local politician Carol Springer, who died Aug. 9, 2018, at age 81, was among the “Fab Five” – a group of Arizona state top office holders who got national attention in 1999 for being exclusively female. Here, Springer, right, is sworn in as Arizona State Treasurer by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, left, as Springer’s daughters Leslie and Carol Lynn look on. (Couresy/Springer family)
A group shot of local politician Carol Springer’s family from about 1999 shows, left to right, John “Bert” Springer; Carol Lynn Springer; Carol Springer; Kurt Springer; Leslie Springer; and Kent Springer. (Courtesy/Springer family)
Carol Springer
Carol Springer, Board of Supervisors District 1 Republican Candidate celebrates with supporter Bill Feldmeier after election results come in at the Palace Restaurant in downtown Prescott Tuesday September 2, 2008. (Courier file photo)
Yavapai County Election officials Jimmie Jo Hlavin and Desi Zurcher, at right, demonstrate to Yavapai County Supervisors Thom Thurman and Carol Springer along with County Administrator Julie Ayers show a new Voting Center would work on Monday during a special presentation at the County Administration Building in Prescott November 14, 2011. (Les Stukenberg/Courier)
Yavapai County Supervisors Chip Davis, Carol Springer, Thom Thurman, Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett and County Administrator Julie Ayers listen to a presentation Monday from the County Election Department about a new committee that will oversee Arizona Elections protocol and processes November 14, 2011. (Les Stukenberg/Courier)
Carol Springer in 2008
Among the interests of local politician Carol Springer, who died on Aug. 9, 2018, was piloting an airplane. (Courtesy/Springer family)
Yavapai County Supervisors Carol Springer, Chip Davis and Tom Thurman unveil the plaque commemorating the planting of the Centennial Tree, a Diadora Cedar, on the Yavapai County Courthouse Tuesday, February 14, 2012 in Prescott. (Les Stukenberg/Courier)
Carol Springer speaks at the debate Tuesday night at the Williamson Valley Fire station #57, with George Seaman October 7, 2008. (Courier file photo)
Carol Springer speaks at the debate Tuesday night at the Williamson Valley Fire station #57, with George Seaman October 7, 2008. (Courier file photo)
Carol Springer speaks at the debate Tuesday night at the Williamson Valley Fire station #57, with George Seaman October 7, 2008. (Courier file photo)
Supervisor Ton Thurman, Yavapai County Superior Court Presiding Judge David L. Mackey, Yavapai County Director of Juvenile Court Services Scott Mabery, Arizona Supreme Court Justice Robert Brutinel Clerk of Superior Court Sandra Markham and Supervisor Carol Springer cut the ribbon at the Yavapai County Juvenile Justice Center ribbon cutting ceremony Friday, October 26, 2012 in Prescott. (Les Stukenberg/Courier)
Steve Pierce, left, Tom Henze and Carol Springer concentrate on the election numbers they see on the large screen during Tuesday's presidential election. Both Pierce and Springer had significant leads over their opponents during early election returns on November 4, 2008.(Les Stukenberg/Courier)
Managing director of SunEdison Robert Reichenberger, left, President and COO of APS Donald Robinson, ACC chairman Kris Mayes, ACC board member Sandra Kennedy and Yavapai County supervisor Carol Springer were a few in attendance at the groundbreaking December 17, 2010 for SunEdison's new solar farm that APS will buy the energy from. (Courier/Brett Soldwedel)
County Supervisor Carol Springer states her position and thoughts on issues Thursday July 24, 2008 at a forum for supervisor candidates. (Courier file photo)
Yavapai County Supervisor Carol Springer shares a laugh with longtime family friend Ken Bennett and Larry Tarkowski at her retirement party at the Prescott Steak House Wednesday December 5, 2012. Attending the party was a who's who of local, county and state officials both elected and supervisory to honor (roast) her. (Les Stukenberg/Courier)
Yavapai County Supervisor Carol Springer shares a laugh with longtime family friend Jack Husted at her retirement party at the Prescott Steak House Wednesday December 5, 2012. Attending the party was a who's who of local, county and state officials both elected and supervisory to honor (roast) her. (Les Stukenberg/Courier)
Carol Springer in 2008
Yavapai County Supervisors Tom Thurman and Carol Springer look on as National Wether Service Falgstaff's Warning Coordination Meteorologist George Howard presents Yavapai County Emergency Management Coordinator Nick Angiolillo with a sign designating Yavapai County as Storm Ready August 24, 2009. (Les Stukenberg/Courier)
Supervisor candidates from left, George Seaman, Georgene Lockwood and Carol Springer at a candidate forum Thursday July 24, 2008 at the Williamson Valley fire station. (Courier file photo)
Yavapai County Supervisors, from left, Carol Springer, Chip Davis and Tom Thurman listen to the presentation as over 100 people attended the supervisors meeting on Monday, March 1, 2010 many were there because of the Williamson Valley Community Plan vote was on the agenda. (Les Stukenberg/Courier)
Tom Thurmann, Carol Springer and Chip Davis vote on the consent agenda before they as the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors hold a public hearing Monday, November 7, 2005 on the proposed Pioneer Park county building complex. (Les Stukenberg/Courier)
Her children remember their mother as being hardworking and strict, but also fun and adventurous.
They say she regularly worked 16-hour days at her business, Springer Realty, and expected her older children to have dinner on the table at 6 every night.
At the same time, Springer took the children on family trips to the beach in Oregon, where she loved to ride motorcycles. “She had an adventurous side,” her oldest son Kent says, remembering that his mother was a professional bowler, a pilot, a golfer, and a world traveler to far-flung locales from Africa to Alaska.
She also excelled at card games, such as Texas Hold ‘em” and Let It Ride. “She enjoyed the entertainment that Las Vegas had to offer,” Kent remembers with a laugh. “She was a hell of a bluffer. She could keep a straight face like nobody’s business.”
EARLY YEARS
Springer was born in 1936 in the small community of Nathrop, Colorado, to what Kent terms “humble beginnings.”
The family soon moved to Oregon, and Springer grew up in Gresham, Oregon, where she excelled at roller skating, and was named a teenage queen of the roller rink.
She married and moved to Arizona in 1969, and worked in real estate in Scottsdale for time, before moving to Prescott in the early 1970s.
Springer divorced in 1973, and her children say she would go on to raise them “pretty much on her own.”
Arizona State Sen. Karen Fann, who remembers Springer first as her mother’s good friend and later as a political mentor, says those days as a single mother likely helped to pave the way for Springer’s later political success.
“In her generation, that was a lot to be a single mother, raising five kids,” Fann said. “She had to be tough.”
Indeed, toughness was among Springer’s attributes as a politician. Often operating in a largely male world, she never allowed her gender to get in her way, Kent says. “She didn’t scare,” he said. “If there was ever a person who could not be intimidated, it was her.”
Still, Fann said Springer always tempered her toughness with kindness. “She didn’t back down, but she was not a bully; she was one who wanted to listen to you and hear what you had to say. She was the most down-to-earth person you would ever meet.”
Springer’s children remember their mother as expecting a lot from them. But she also drove herself. Her daughter Leslie Springer says her mother was a “home flipper” before the practice even had a name.
“She would buy a house, fix it up, and get a little bit bigger house,” Leslie said. Eventually, Springer settled in a home that she had built in the Thumb Butte area.
POLITICAL WORLD
Springer entered state politics in 1991, when her children say she got angry about a previous decision. They don’t remember exactly what the issue was, but it likely had something to do with their mother’s lifelong mantra: “Don’t spend money you don’t have.”
Springer, a Republican, was elected to the Arizona State Senate in 1991, and she would go on to serve until 1998. During that time, she immersed herself in water issues, and Fann said she became an expert on the 1980 Groundwater Act.
Her children list other major accomplishments as well, including: Creation of Arizona charter schools to provide parents with school choice; creation of the “stalker law”; and being consistently recognized as a “friend of the taxpayer” by the Arizona Federation of Taxpayers.
Springer’s mentor throughout those years was her longtime companion, former U.S. Congressman and Prescott Mayor Sam Steiger, who died in 2012. Her children say Steiger served as Springer’s political adviser and also as someone they could count on during their growing up years.
FAB FIVE
After leaving the State Senate, Springer was elected Arizona State Treasurer – a position that brought national attention to her and her colleagues in the upper echelon of state government.
Kent remembers that the five top officeholders — Gov. Jane Hull, Secretary of State Betsey Bayless, Attorney General Janet Napolitano, Superintendent of Public Instruction Lisa Graham Keegan, and Springer as State Treasurer — were a bit surprised by the title “Fab Five,” and the media attention that ensued from having all females in Arizona’s top offices.
The five went on to appear on the ‘Today’ show, in People magazine, and Time magazine.
Near the end of her term as treasurer in 2002, Springer attempted to move up once again — this time to the governor’s seat. “She knew she wouldn’t win,” said Kent. “But she was able to get some concessions (from her opponents for the Republican nomination).”
Springer’s final political act came at the county level — as Yavapai County Supervisor from 2005 to 2012.
Along with Kent and Leslie, Springer’s other children include; John “Bert,” Kurt, and Carol Lynn.
Springer’s graveside services are private, but a celebration of her life will take place from 3 to 7 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 22, at the Windsock Cocktail Lounge, 1385 Iron Springs Road, Prescott. The public is welcome.
Follow Cindy Barks on Twitter @Cindy_Barks. Reach her at 928-445-3333, ext. 2034, or cbarks@prescottaz.com.
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