Hubert Tamblyn "Tam" Spiva, Jr. | |
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Born |
Minden, Webster Parish, Louisiana, USA |
June 18, 1932
Residence | Pacific Palisades, California |
Alma mater | Northwestern University |
Occupation | Television and film screenwriter |
Spouse(s) |
(1) Martha Brown |
Children | Four children |
Parent(s) | Hubert, Sr., and Lilla Ellenor Stewart Spiva |
Relatives |
William G. Stewart (great-uncle) |
Notes | |
Spiva's parents came from a newspaper background, but he ventured into Hollywood script writing, particularly The Brady Bunch and Gentle Ben
|
(1) Martha Brown
(2) Laura Lee Dulberger
William G. Stewart (great-uncle)
Hubert Tamblyn Spiva, Jr., known as Tam Spiva (born June 18, 1932)), is a television screenwriter in Pacific Palisades, California, who is best known for his work on ABC's The Brady Bunch situation comedy (1969–1974), starring Florence Henderson and Robert Reed, and CBS's family drama Gentle Ben (1967–1969) starring Dennis Weaver and Clint Howard.
Originally from the small city of Minden in Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana, Spiva was the son of Hubert Spiva, Sr. (1899-1939), a former foreign correspondent, and the former Lilla Ellenor Stewart (1906–1959), who married in 1929. They operated the Webster Printing Company and the former The Minden Herald and The Webster Review newspapers, forerunners of the Minden Press-Herald. Lilla Spiva, a scion of a prominent Webster Parish family, was a daughter of Minden attorney Daniel Webster Stewart, Sr. (1857-1935), and his wife, the former Alice Leona Reagan (1871-1954). She was a niece of William Green Stewart, a farmer and a former president of the Webster Parish School Board, for whom the since defunct William G. Stewart Elementary School in Minden is named. Another uncle, E. L. Stewart, was a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives at the time of her birth. Known as "Babe", Lilla Spiva managed the papers after her husband's death at the age of forty and was herself publisher and society editor of the Minden Herald and a member of the Louisiana Press Association. On January 23, 1960, the press association posthumously honored her for her journalistic accomplishments.Hubert Spiva is interred at Mount Hope Cemetery in Webb City in Jasper County in southwestern Missouri. Lilla is interred with other Stewart relatives at the historic Minden Cemetery. Spiva's aunt, Lilla's sister, was Mary Amanda Stewart (1903–1994), whom he visited in the Stewart home, later the Farley home, when he returned to his hometown.