Mervine Spingola

Mervine Mae Spingola of Clearfield passed away peacefully on Friday, September 29th at the age of 79 surrounded by her sons, her sister and niece after a long illness.

Mervine was born on November 8th 1943 the oldest of five children of Genevieve and Frank Palumbo of Sykesville. She was a popular, outstanding student and graduated from Sykesville High School in 1961 at the age of 16 after being moved up a grade. It was the last graduating class of that school before consolidating with Dubois.

Mervine began her fifty year restaurant career working at The Royal in downtown Clearfield where she met her future husband John R. Spingola. They were married on November 2, 1963 in Winchester Virginia and remained married until his passing on April 5, 2014.

In 1966 the young couple purchased The St. Charles Café from the widow of John’s late uncle, Dan Spingola. It was a longtime landmark of Clearfield as a hotel and bar when the town was a railroad and logging center. The business became very successful under Mervine and John’s hard work and they transformed it into a popular family restaurant, building a dining room along with the bar that was open seven days a week with the kitchen staying open late to serve the many hungry workers who worked the late shift in the manufacturing plants that were in town at the time. In the 60’s and 70’s they were among the first in the area to offer takeout food and beer, offering full dinners, sandwiches and pizza as well as the first place in the area to have Sunday takeout beer sales.

Over the next five decades Mervine managed the “back of the house” of St. Charles Café actively supervising the food preparation, kitchen, dining room, catering, events and the bookkeeping of St. Charles as well as raising her sons John and Tim. She was humble and preferred to stay in the background but her hard work and good food always stood out.

One of the favorite parts of her job was when Mervine catered backstage at the Clearfield County Fair for many years, preparing and serving homemade food for the performers and their crews who played at the Fair including Garth Brooks, Three Dog Night, The Beach Boys, Gloria Estefan, Sheena Easton, The Little River Band, Merle Haggard and many more over the years. She was often personally acknowledged by the performers and their management for the fine job and personal touch that she and her crew provided them.

In 1988, they expanded the restaurant and built a banquet facility “The Ballroom,” connected to their existing Dining Room that could hold over 200 plus guests and became a vital part of the community through the decades hosting scores of weddings, the local Charity Ball many times, corporate parties, holiday buffets, live entertainment, reunions, funeral luncheons and other types of events.

When not working, Mervine’s great passion was her dogs, she was an accomplished breeder of pedigreed Labrador Retrievers. She bred and raised over 25 Labs over the years, keeping them or selling them to families all over the country. She loved to take her dogs out to the woods and let them play. She had many dogs that she loved over the years besides her Labs including three Sharpei, a Collie, Tiny that she had for almost 20 years and most recently her beloved Bella, a Cane Corso mastiff that was her loyal companion for the past nine years.

Mervine’s other favorite hobby was collecting antique wooden furniture and Carnival and Depression glass and she had a fine collection of both.

She deeply loved her family and friends and is survived by her sons John P. Spingola and Timothy D. Spingola and granddaughter Charlena (Charlie) of Clearfield, sister Marjorie Breese and her husband Abraham of Delmont and her daughter Desiree and brothers Russell Palumbo and Michael Palumbo of New Jersey.

She is proceeded in death by her husband John R. Spingola, parents Frank and Genevieve Palumbo and sister Emma Palumbo Berrios.

A Celebration of Life Memorial will be held in the near future. In lieu of flowers donations are encouraged to be made to the Clearfield County SPCA and other animal rescue charities.