Evelyn Phillips

Celebration of Evelyn Phillips March 26, 1945 to September 22, 2020 Evelyn Louise Phillips was the eighth and last child born to the union of Ben Phillips and Pearl Whittaker Phillips. In the spring of 1945 Tuscaloosa, Alabama. As the youngest offspring, she became the charge of the older siblings, while the parents went off to work. Evelyn graduated from Druid High School in Tuscaloosa and went on to Talladega College to earn a Bachelor of Science Degree. She earned a master’s degree in library science from North Carolina State University. Evelyn worked as a research librarian with the Maryland legislature in Annapolis, The University of Georgia at Athens and later with the Richmond, VA School System. She was forced into an early retirement following a massive stroke in 1996. She had a slow and difficult recovery. Following regimented physical and speech therapy, Evelyn was able to regain some basic mobility and cognitive skills but would continue to experience some of the systemic after-effects of the stroke to her cognitive and cardiovascular systems. It was some of those issues that led to her going into cardiac arrest on the afternoon of September 22 at Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville, FL. She spent 20 years in the State of Virginia before returning to Tuscaloosa in 2010 where she joined sister Mildred who had been recently widowed from her husband of 39 years Clinton Oliver. While there Evelyn suffered a fall and broke her hip, requiring an extensive rehab. The two moved to St. Augustine in 2015 at the urging of brother Floyd to be closer to family. Within weeks of moving here, she fell again and suffered a broken wrist, which requires additional physical therapy and care. Evelyn never married or had children and is survived by three living siblings, Mildred P. Oliver, Carl (Dena) and Floyd (Regina Gayle). She is preceded in death by her parents, and siblings: Leroy (Betsy) Earl (Ruby), Margaret, and Annie Pearl. She is survived by six nieces, three nephews, and a several grand one grand nieces, nephews, and a great niece, Ayira, whom she was especially endeared to. Evelyn loved books, traveling and crochet as hobbies. Her travels include Africa, Alaska, Australia and Hawaii, and many other places with family and friends with a club from Richmond and with other family members. She had planned a trip with Mildred to Paris for later this year but cancelled it due to the COVID 19 Pandemic and health considerations. In St Augustine, she became a devoted patron to the Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center. She and Mildred made many new friends at the St. Augustine Council on Aging and in the Madeira neighborhood where they lived and were known affectionately as “the girls” or “the sisters”.

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