Emma McBride Spinning, "Aunt Em", was born in Corunna (Caledonia) Michigan in 1856 and died in California in 1942, while living with her niece, Nell Rhodes McCoy. She lived in Michigan, Arizona and California, often with her niece (Nell) or nephews, Will and Albert. She married (about age 45) to Rev. Otis Spinning, a Methodist minister. Having no children of her own, Emma was always close to her sister Mary's children, and in some ways became their second mother after Mary's death in 1991.