(Publisher’s Note: We’ve decided to publish this feature from more than a year ago to remind our Wheeling-area readers of the services offered by the Spry family’s business – sending some of the favorite tastes of Wheeling to family and friends who now reside outside of the area! Please be sure to call Spry’s Mail Center Plus to get updated information so the good stuff can arrive safely.)
Staci smiles, a lot, just like her three sisters. In fact, when you get all of the Marshall girls together – Joni, Sheri, Teri, and Staci – they form their own Fantastic Four.
Now, if you throw in their mother? Becky? And Dad, Chip? The leaders of the white-out pearl parade? Well, you just better hope all named Marshall are ear-to-ear when you see them because, if they are not, someone is in for a surrounding force of rectification. And they will have their justice, count in it.
Staci Marshall Spry is as locally grown as they come with the hometown homestead on “long Maple” in Woodsdale, and their home rests atop Glenwood Heights along National Road near the city’s Fulton neighborhood. And the family business? That’s Spry’s Mail Center Plus, but that doesn’t mean Staci and her husband, Kevin, spend their workdays popping away leftover bubble wrap.
Instead, Staci, a graduate of St. Michael’s, Central Catholic High, and West Liberty University, is a sales agent for Paull Associates in Wheeling. Kevin has been a coal miner for more than two decades while the couple raised their two daughters. In their house, obviously, hard work plays a factor, but so do happiness, trust, laughter, and love.
It’s about holding on tight on Spry Mountain and praying for what The Lord allows, and always being prepared to be that stilt, the crutch, or the much-needed and necessary embrace of security.
What is the strangest thing you have ever mailed for someone?
The strangest package ever sent was horse semen sent in an igloo cooler insured for $3500!
We’ve sent crated 4×4 artwork to Christie’s Auction House in New York to go to auction. We sent the semi-finalist’s forged weapon to the tv show Forged in Fire. We send food of all nationalities everywhere.
How many trays of DiCarlo’s do you mail each year … and to how many different countries?
We send about 85-125 trays of Patsy’s Pizza yearly throughout the continental U.S.
Would you trade your house for any of the dwellings you show as an agent for Paull Associates?
I would totally trade my house for some of the homes I’ve shown for sure, but it must have a first-floor master bedroom & bathroom, or it’s a deal breaker!
Why are you the best Marshall daughter?
I’m definitely not the Best Marshall sister! Each of us has something we do well, but together, we are a force to be reckoned with. Family has been ingrained in all of us by our awesome parents. We are a tight tribe!
What is one thing most people do not know about a coal miner?
A coal miner’s hands have kept my family and many of our family members together for generations. My girls and I are so proud of my husband, their father, of the many hours of overtime he has worked, the missed celebrations, and the sacrifices he has made to provide us with a good life.
He never complains about the hard, and sometimes dangerous work, and we always stand our ground with the coal haters in the Ohio Valley.
Kevin has preached since day one, “What happens underground, stays underground”. This statement has saved me many sleepless nights.
In my family, we are all coal miner daughters in some way or another and wouldn’t have it any other way!
