Nancy Gillespie

Nancy Gillespie, 83, died November 27, 2025, at home with her family in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, after a years-long battle with Alzheimer's disease.

Sassy and loving to the very end, she led a rich, adventurous, and fulfilling life that began in Barranquilla, Colombia, on May 30, 1942. The oldest of six children born to Guillermo and Carmen (Cabrera) Benavides, Nancy charted her own path to a three-decade teaching career in the West Chester Area School District, the bulk of which was teaching Spanish to high school students whose varying levels of curiosity and ambivalence both excited her and amused her.

As a college student, after two years at Universidad del Atlántico, Nancy earned a scholarship to the University of California at Los Angeles, where she graduated with a degree in linguistics. From there, she returned to Colombia to the mountain city of Cáli, where she met Paul Edward Gillespie, a Peace Corps volunteer from Downingtown, PA, who would become her husband of 58 years and father of her two children, Jennifer and Sean.

Nancy and Paul married in Barranquilla in December of 1967 and soon moved with their cat, Gato, to southeastern Pennsylvania, which would be home for the rest of her life. In the Delaware Valley, Nancy would discover and nurture the American suburbanite who was always at her core.

Though her children moved away from Pennsylvania as adults, Nancy was always eager to enjoy their home towns and ever more so when her beloved grandchildren arrived. She absolutely beamed with joy while being silly with her grandkids. Beyond that, as empty nesters, Nancy and Paul loved to explore the U.S. and the world in their travels.

During retirement, Nancy could be found walking miles around her neighborhood and in School Road Park nearly every morning, just as she did most afternoons during her career. At home, she relished the time spent in her cherished sunroom, reading and playing sudoku and cursing the Phillies' bullpen from April to September.

Nancy will be missed dearly by her husband Paul; her daughter, Jennifer (Eric) Brown of St. Augustine, FL; her son, Sean (Liz) Gillespie of Seattle, WA; grandchildren, Renard Kendall of Pittsburgh, Joshua Brown of St. Augustine, and Sylvia and Tyler Gillespie of Seattle; sisters, Magaly Blanco and Nora Zuñiga, and brothers, Alfredo and Jairo, all of Barranquilla.

She was preceded in death by her parents and her brother, William.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Nancy's memory can be made to the Fisher Center for Alzheimer's Research Foundation.

Arrangements are made by Huff & Lakjer Funeral Home, Lansdale, PA.