William Loring Nunez Spencer

William "May" Loring Spencer (née Nunez; October 1, 1847 – May 13, 1921) was an American author and stage actress.

Family origins May Nunez was born in St. Augustine, Florida, on October 1, 1847. Her mother, Eliza Loring, was on her mother's side descended from a North Carolinian family, which claimed descent from lords sitting in the Irish Parliament. Her father was of the Boston family of Lorings, descendants of Thomas Loring. Her mother, who was esteemed a beauty, was the sister of general William Wing Loring, of the Khedive's army. The daughter was named William Wing after this uncle, who was then a major in the United States army. As a child she was called "the little Major", which as she grew older was abbreviated to May, and as May she was known to her friends. Her father, Albert A. Nunez, was descended from the noble Castilian family of Nunez that in the 19th century still held its rank in the court of Spain. Gonsalvo de Nunez was of the same family, also the Admiral de Nunez who died off the South American coast.

Early life In his youth Albert Nunez had been in California the law partner of Gregory Yale, but soon after May's birth he moved the family to Baltimore, Maryland, in which city May and her sister lived as children. There her father was the law partner of Judge Collins Lee, of the same family as Robert E. Lee, and her young mother was one of the most admired of Baltimore's elite. It was in Baltimore that May's mother became a Roman Catholic, and from Baltimore she and her sister were sent to Mount De Sales Convent to be educated in the religion as well as the branches necessary to a girl whose future promised prosperity. From Baltimore Albert Nunez moved to New York, where his wife died.

Travels in Europe In New York reverses of fortune fell upon Albert Nunez. General Loring wrote for his nieces to go to Europe. He desired that they should continue their studies of music and the languages, and stood towards them, the only children of his only sister, as guardian and protector. After leaving their friends in England and France, they travelled over some of the wildest parts of Italy. General Loring being detained in Egypt by state affairs, they were in Italy a year before he joined them and took them on a tour through the country, and obtained for them a private audience with the Pope at Rome. They fell in love, and in 1877 she became his second wife: they were married early one morning in a Roman Catholic chapel on 14th Street, New York City. May died on May 23, 1921, aged seventy-three.

Works

Salt Lake Fruit (1883); Story of Mary (1884), republished as Dennis Day (1887); A Plucky One (1887); Calamity Jane: A Story of the Back Hills (1887).