Emma G. Spencer, 86, sold clothes with class

Chances are, if you shopped at Spencer’s Ltd., you were an Atlanta businessman or simply fancied fuss-free fashion.

The men’s boutique, located cater-corner to the Fox Theatre at 693 Peachtree St. N.E., sold conservative high-end clothes such as button-down dress shirts, tweed sport coats and blue blazers. The boutique stocked apparel ideal for that 9-to-5 job, perfect for men 25 to 50 years old.

Enlarge this image

Family photo

Emma Glyn Spencer receives a Christmas kiss from her husband, Hal Spencer, who predeceased her. Their downtown Atlanta clothing store opened in 1947.

Atlanta native Glyn Spencer and her husband, Harold, opened Spencer’s in 1947. It became an Atlanta icon. At one time, Spencer’s had a mail-order business that had customers from the across the Southeast.

“It was a high-end men’s shop, kind of along the order of Brooks Brothers, but independent,” said Mrs. Spencer’s niece, Sharon Rogers of Loganville. “This was in the 1950s and 1960s, when you didn’t have malls around Atlanta. Downtown was the shopping area, and their store was a one-of-a-kind type of thing. It was a very quaint shop.”

Emma Glyn Putnal Spencer, 86, of Highlands, N.C., and formerly of Atlanta, died Oct. 27. A memorial service will be at 3 p.m. Saturday at St. Martin in the Fields Episcopal Church in Atlanta. Bryant-Grant Funeral Home in Franklin, N.C., is in charge of arrangements.

Mrs. Spencer ran a women’s boutique in a back corner of the men’s shop. While male customers tried on duds, their wives and girlfriends could browse racks. Her personal fashion sense reflected the apparel she stocked — conservative with class.

“She wore business suits, skirts and slacks — very elegant,” her niece said.

After Mrs. Spencer’s husband died in 1984, her brother, Joe Putnal, helped run the store into the early 1990s. The shop closed when she retired. Her brother, who died in 2006, continued to handle mail-order requests for longtime customers.

“I think they had a great trust relationship,” said a niece, Kathleen Webb of Duluth.

“She was very businesslike and very professional. He respected that, and she respected him. From all appearances, and we were there a lot, they were a well-oiled machine.”