In whatever circumstances she found herself, Rio Sprague rose to the top. She had extraordinary organizational ability, which she put to use in a variety of positions across a career of nearly a half century. Rio was a native of Richmond, but she spent most of her life in the Northern Neck.
In 1976, Rio and her husband, Norman, purchased the S. G. Conley country store in Wicomico Church. They remodeled the building and expanded the products they offered. Rio was meticulous in keeping the merchandize fresh and clean. She could not tolerate disorder in any form.
After 10 years as storekeepers, the Spragues sold the market and Norman began a new retail career in the meat department at the grocery store in Heathsville. For her part, Rio began a new career in banking in Kilmarnock.
She started as a teller, but soon became a customer service representative with a desk in the lobby. In that milieu, Rio shined brightly. She recognized that the large population of senior citizens in the lower Northern Neck often needed help with keeping their accounts in order. She was tireless in helping her customers, patiently explaining the rules and procedures and offering suggestions as to the options the bank offered for depositing and safeguarding their savings and investments.
Rio lived by the rules of the game, whatever that game was. She was uniformly courteous and gregarious to everyone, but she would not budge on applying the rules as she knew them to be. When she left the bank, she returned to the grocery business, becoming a manager at Norman’s store in Heathsville.
In short order, she typically mastered the entire operation of the store. She thrived on customer service, wanting every patron and every employee to know that she was available to listen and to explain. She would not tolerate lapses. On one occasion, I told her about a negative experience I had with an employee of the sister store in Montross. She was appalled and advised that I should have reported it to the manager. For Rio every aspect of business had to meet her standards of excellence.
In her last career, coming out of what she thought was retirement, Rio went to work at the Jacey Vineyard in Wicomico Church. The skills that she had honed over her years in the retail trade she put to use in helping to get the vineyard known and its products appreciated. She mentored younger employees, as she had done in all of her previous ventures and she was fastidious in wanting the customers to have a good experience during their time at the vineyard.
Throughout her long career, Rio contended with lupus, always refusing to give in to it, forging ahead and doing her best in every task she undertook. Rio did not tell jokes, although she enjoyed hearing them, but she made very funny comments on the passing scene, inflecting her voice and giving a wry smile as she spoke.
In that sense, she was a very amusing person. One of her oft-repeated comments about domestic life concerned the chores she tasked Norman with accomplishing. “When I work him hard, I have to feed him well.” Norman would retort, “It makes me feel like a horse.”
A few years ago, Rio and Norman’s home flooded while they had gone into town. The experience, as horrible as it was, again demonstrated Rio and Norman’s resiliency, as they forged ahead getting the house repaired. They both enjoyed going to see other homes, particularly when an estate sale was being conducted on premises.
At the end of March, Rio died at the age of 78. Above all, she was consistently a driving force for good in the community—that is how she will be remembered.
Rio Lester Sprague, December 2, 1946 – March 30, 2025. R.I.P.
