Evelyn Paige Gold

(July 5, 1920 – May 11, 2009)

Evelyn Gold, Clevention, 1955.
Photo by George Young.

Evelyn Paige “Eve” Gold (née Stein, later Spencer) was an assistant editor for Galaxy Science Fiction. Fans called her “Goldie” and “Goldilocks.” In the early 1950s, she was a regular at Worldcon and Midwestcon. She was often on panels as the “Face” of Galaxy.

She had been a dancer and an actress. In the 1940s, in New York, she wrote for radio shows including “The Kate Smith Hour” and “The Shadow,” and then television, including “Robert Montgomery Presents.” She helped create the Children's Art Carnival at the Museum of Modern Art in 1941.

She was married to H. L. Gold, Galaxy’s editor, from 1939–57. They had a son, E. J. Gold. Horace was afflicted with agoraphobia, so they did a lot of entertaining at home, including people from both the art and sf worlds. Eve Gold seems to have left the sf field after her divorce.

She moved to California and married Paul Donner Spencer (a great-great-grandson of George Donner, who led the ill-fated Donner party across the Sierras) in April 1961. Eve became a well-known modernist artist, working in enamels. The couple wrote A Treasury of Trivia as by Donner and Eve Paige Spencer and apparently self published (Doneve Designs, 1978).

In 1986, while recovering from cancer surgery, Eve Spencer won the $15.22-million grand prize in the California Lottery, the biggest “instant game” payoff in lottery history. Donner Spencer died in 2008; Eve Paige Spencer died on May 11, 2009.

• Photo at TASFiC.
• Short video bio.
• “$15.22-Million Winner Breaks ‘Big Spin’ Jinx,” LA Times, June 22, 1986.

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Person

1920—2009

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