Carol Stone-Spillman kind of “fell into the bike business,” said her son, Ed Spillman II of Kearney, Neb.
Stone-Spillman’s husband, also Ed Spillman, scrounged for spare parts when his kids were little and bike shops weren’t common. He’d find parts in trash cans or at the Salvation Army and then build bikes for his son and daughter, Bonnie.
Soon he was building bikes for “neighborhood kids and the family and everyone,” and the couple finally opened a bike shop in southeast Denver, near the University of Denver, their son said.
Stone-Spillman died April 22 in Kearney after a short illness. She was 69.
A cemetery service is planned for 2 p.m. May 26 at Fairmount Cemetery, 480 S. Quebec St.
Her family has pictures of Stone-Spillman on a bike when she was a child, and she continued to ride until her health failed. She wasn’t a 400-mile-a-week rider, but she loved bikes and had a Raleigh mountain bicycle in the retirement apartment where she lived her last years.
She also collected antique bikes, including a bike with a big front wheel and small back wheel, both wooden.
Over the years, Stone-Spillman and her husband owned more than 25 bike shops in Denver and Colorado Springs, one time owning three. But usually they sold one when they bought or started a new one. Their daughter, Bonnie Johnson, owns the Colorado Springs Bike Shop that they started.
They taught their children how to ride, and Johnson believes she was about 2 when she first got on a bike. Safety, including a helmet, was mandatory with Stone-Spillman.
Stone-Spillman specialized in doing the business side and promotions for the shops but she could fix a bike as well as her husband.
She also founded the Colorado Springs Cycling Club in 1985 and often went on rides with members.
She loved cars and cats, and always drove a Mercury Cougar, her son said. The car was always a silver one and she kept it in immaculate condition. She was still driving a week before she died.
Carol Lorraine Stone was born in Crete, Neb., on Sept. 23, 1937, and moved to Denver, where she graduated from North High School.
She married Edward H. Spillman on March 15, 1957. He died in 1995.
In addition to her children, she is survived by four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
A son, James Dean Spillman, also preceded her in death.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at vculver@denverpost.com or 303-954-1223.
