Nyoka Spears Bowdoin passed away Monday, December 22, 2025. She was born August 28, 1943, the first daughter of Charlie Ray and Mattie Frances Adams Spears. She is preceded in death by her parents and her husband of 47 years, Jim Parker Bowdoin Sr.

She is survived by her son, Jim Parker Bowdoin Jr. and wife, Tamra of Ino, Alabama; daughter, Frances Bowdoin Phillips and husband, Chris of Cartersville, Georgia; three grandchildren, William Parker Phillips, Addison Lynn Bowdoin and Charlie Christopher Phillips; her sister, Charla Spears Adkison, husband Rodney and son Alex; dearest cousin Cheryl Graves; numerous nieces, nephews and extended beloved family and friends. She loved her caregivers who became family: Tim and Cindy Harris, Chris Johnson, Vickie Madden, Mandy Patterson, Mary Tolbert and Chrissy Ellis.

The family will receive friends Saturday, December 27, from 10 – 11 a.m. at Wyatt Funeral Home in Opp, Alabama. Graveside services will follow at Peaceful Acres Cemetery in Opp with Brother Garry Winstead officiating. Pallbearers are a few of her favorite boys: Brady Reynolds, Wesley Reynolds, Ross Terrell, Bo Nichols, Tim Harris, Will Phillips and Charlie Phillips.

The family requests memorial gifts be made to Nyoka's beloved church, Ino Baptist Church, 6157 Highway 134, Kinston, AL 36453.

She was one of three generations to graduate from Kinston High School and attended both the University of Montevallo and Auburn University Montgomery, earning undergraduate and graduate degrees in education. Her career began at Holly Hill Elementary School in Enterprise in her early 20s, where she retired after 32 years of teaching third grade. She was an adamant supporter of public education, and typically always had the teachers' side in classroom behavioral conflicts that might arise with her two children. To say the least, her own kids didn't catch a break from their mother when education was involved.

As a new teacher, she drove her hotrod 1967 Ford Mustang from her parents' Estothel, Alabama home in Covington County, down Highway 134 through the Ino Community to Enterprise. Her route never changed, as she might miss a chance to ogle over a high school classmate, a good-looking, dark-haired farmer working in the fields. She adamantly denied this story her entire life, retorting that she was simply slowing down because of the sharp curve in the road that split the farmer's land on both sides of the highway.

She married this farmer, "big" Jim Parker Bowdoin on March 10, 1973, and they built a life together in the Ino Community with their children, Jim Parker and Frances. Nyoka and Jim were married 47 years when he passed away in 2020, and she painfully missed him each day. We have no doubt they're joined together again rocking on a big front porch, bickering while catching up on the last few years of life.

She loved shopping, quilting, crafting and going anywhere and everywhere out of the house, whether that be the Dollar General, shopping with her sister Charla, riding down to the beach for lunch, to north Georgia to watch her grandsons play baseball or up the road to see granddaughter, daughter-in-law and son after work. Her family joked that she was born with "go britches" on. In retirement, she was happiest "keeping the roads hot," "piddling" around and being an active member of the Ino Senior Center. She adored children, loved cats and dogs and reveled in a house full of family and friends.

An amazing cook, her kitchen table was always full and overflowing with simple but delicious meals. Fried chicken and pork chops; biscuits and tomato gravy, cornbread; fresh peas, fried okra, butterbeans and field corn. She spent her summers stocking her freezers and pantry with vegetables, pickles, jellies and preserves. If you showed up around mealtime, visitors joined the family at her kitchen table to eat; she simply wouldn't have it any other way.

Until the end of her life, she was a faithful member of Ino Baptist Church, and its members were truly her extended family. In her younger years, she loved singing in the choir where she could keep an eye on the congregation. There was a right way and a wrong way to behave in church, and she was known to come out of the choir loft to set her chatty teenage daughter and friends straight. She loved teaching children's Sunday School classes and served thousands over the years through the kitchen at summer Vacation Bible School.

Our Mama loved Jesus and prayed over her children, grandchildren, extended family and beloved friends; her faithfulness to the Lord laid the foundation for her own family's spiritual formation. She was quick-witted, straightforward, no nonsense, a devoted caretaker, the heart of our family and the strongest woman we will ever have the honor to know and love.