Entertainer, PR exec Spencer dies

Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2000 | 9:56 a.m.

Dee Spencer, a longtime Las Vegas entertainer, newspaper columnist and public relations executive who was the middle link in three generations of a show business family, has died. She was 75.

Spencer died Thursday of a heart attack in Branson, Mo., where she had lived for nine years, her family said.

She worked for the Braschler Theatre on the Barbara Fairchild Show and was merchandising director for the famed Sons of the Pioneers western band, which regularly performs in Branson.

Spencer was the ex-wife of Sunny Spencer and the mother-in-law of Gary LeMaster, both longtime members of the Sons of the Pioneers.

"In 1980 my mother gave me a piece of paper and on it she wrote her epitaph: 'When I move on to what has to be and our tomorrows become our yesterdays, remember me -- just remember me,' " said Valerie LeMaster, a former singer who worked with her mother in public relations at the Stardust and Circus Circus.

In the 1950s Spencer was a drummer and saxophonist with Gene Austin and his Orchestra, which performed at numerous downtown Las Vegas venues, including Diamond Jim's Nevada Club, the Mint and the old California Club.

In the 1960s Spencer was society editor and entertainment reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where she also penned the "Dear Diary" column.

In the 1970s Spencer was public relations director at the Stardust under the colorful leadership of Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, upon whom the movie "Casino" is based.

In the early 1980s Spencer moved to Circus Circus where, under veteran public relations man Mel Larson, she worked as assistant publicist until her retirement in 1991.

"Dee kept everyone focused and she made the whole office cheery," Larson said. "She would jump right into a project and learn everything about it. She was so efficient and could adapt to anything with her many and varied skills."

She was born Dolores L. Swail on Jan. 24, 1925, in Belvidere, Ill. Her father, Gerald Swail, and mother, the former Mildred Renwick, were members of the Swail Family Orchestra, which Spencer later joined and toured the Midwest.

In the 1950s Spencer and her then-husband, guitarist Sunny Spencer, toured the United States as part of the Austin orchestra. They were regulars on the Midwestern Hayride radio show.

The Spencers came to Las Vegas in 1959 as part of Austin's orchestra, but in the early 1960s, Dee put her show business career on hold to take the job at the Review-Journal that put her in contact with numerous local celebrities and socialites.

In the early 1970s, Spencer left the newspaper to work with late Las Vegas Sun oddsmaker Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder as his public relations director.

In 1974 Spencer went to the Stardust as assistant public relations director and in 1979 was promoted to head of that department, where she also handled publicity for the Fremont and Hacienda hotels.

Spencer also was an ardent supporter of the UNLV basketball team and the Oakland Raiders football team. Raiders owner Al Davis once gave Spencer quarterback Kenny Stabler's helmet that he had fashioned into a lamp.

Services were held Monday in Branson. Spencer's cremains will be taken to Illinois to be buried alongside her mother. There will be no Las Vegas services, the family said. Greenlawn Funeral Home in Branson handled the arrangements.

In addition to her daughter and granddaughter, Spencer is survived by a son, Bradley Swail Palmer of Portage, Wis.; two sisters, Gloria Buck of Belvidere and Martha Lou Bender of Wausau, Wis.; two other granddaughters, Shannon Palmer and Shabvon Palmer; and a grandson, Joshua Palmer.