Born in Winner, South Dakota, on March 9, 1931, to Albert Raether and Helen Webster, Anna Bell Marie (Raether) Spilman went to be with her Heavenly Father on May 27, 2026.  She passed peacefully, surrounded by family.

Ann was the oldest of six siblings.  Early in life, Ann's family moved from South Dakota to Valley, NE, for work and lived on a farm.  Ann attended Valley Public Schools, graduating high school in 1949, and she was the last living member of her class.

After graduation, Ann attended beauty school and worked nights as a waitress, until she earned her cosmetology license.  Working as a server, Ann met her husband of 70 years, Paul Spilman.  Paul and Ann were married on September 24, 1950, and made their home in Elkhorn, Nebraska.  She opened a beauty shop in their home, where she washed and styled hair for many local residents over the next twenty-plus years.

In the early seventies, Paul and Ann purchased a fishing resort on Ottertail Lake in Minnesota.  Along with Paul's parents, they rented cabins and fishing boats, offered campsites, sold bait and gasoline, and ran a small store.

In 1991, after Paul retired from the Plumber's Union in Omaha, they moved to Bella Vista, Arkansas, and Ann took up sewing.  For the next thirty years, she did alterations for friends and neighbors in the area.  Ann would let clothes out, take clothes in, hem pants and dresses, etc.  She had over 500 customers until she gave up sewing at the age of 90.

Ann was preceded in death by her husband, Paul; two brothers, John Raether and Laurence Raether; two sisters, Mary Benke and Kathy Jensen; and two grandsons, Ryan and Jared Lundy.

Survivors include a son, Lynn (Barbara) Spilman of Vero Beach, Florida; a daughter, Melanie Lundy of Bella Vista, AR; a stepson, Terry (Ann) Thomas of Council Bluffs, IA; one sister, Georgia (George) Daily of Maryville, TN; a sister-in-law, LaVerne Raether of Yutan, NE; and a brother-in-law, Arlo Jensen of Valley, NE.  She also leaves behind five grandchildren, eleven great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren.

In lieu of a celebration of life, Ann would ask that friends and relatives spend more time with their loved ones.  The Spilman family will have a small graveside service later for Ann's and Paul's inurnment.