Phyllis Wolfe

Phyllis Lea Smith was born on Tuesday, October 6, 1936, in Texas County, Missouri, at the rural home of her parents, Roscoe and Gladys (Burgess) Smith. She was the second child born to the union, the ninth child of their joined families. She departed this life on Tuesday, May 28, 2024, from complications of a stroke. She was 87 years, 7 months, and 22 days old when she received her eternal promotion. 

Phyllis grew up during the depression on her family’s farm in the Austin Lake area, between Mountain Grove and Cabool. She often said they might have been poor, but she never knew it – she just knew they were loved. She gave her life to the Lord as a child and continued to lean on Him throughout her life. She was an active member of the Greenwood Church of the Brethren her entire life, until it’s closing in 2022.

Phyllis attended the small rural school of Mt. Zion Elementary through the eighth grade, and then went to Mountain Grove for high school, graduating in May 1954. She would tell stories of the long walks to elementary school and how her dad would meet them at the creek to help them cross it. In high school, she was active in student government and journalism. She was a devoted Republican her entire life.

Phyllis married the neighbor’s son, Richard “Dick” Wolfe. In the summer of 1952, she went to Iowa to live with her sister, Fern, and worked at an ice-cream shop. While she was gone, new people moved into the neighborhood. They had a son named Dick. Phyllis caught Dick’s eye immediately, but she refused to give him the time of day! The story goes that Dick was doing his best flirting, but Phyllis thought he was just showing off. Dick says it was their third encounter before she found him irresistible! They were married on October 16, 1954. They were married 69 years and had been looking forward to their 70^th wedding anniversary this coming October.

Phyllis always lived in the Mountain Grove area, except for eight months in which she and Dick lived in Kansas City, and one year that the Army moved them to Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas. Their first child, a daughter, Denise (1959) turned out to be their souvenir from their military days. Three years later, their only son, Mark (1962) was born, and five years after that, along came another daughter, Julie (1967). In 2007, Phyllis and Dick became legal guardians to her great-nephew, Dale.

In 1966, Phyllis and Dick bought the Sears Roebuck & Company catalog store in Mountain Grove, which they operated together for 27 years, and had a beef cattle operation on the side.

Phyllis had a deep love and desire to help care for both, children and older adults. She had a dream to become a cosmetologist, which she made a reality in 1992. She then proceeded to use her new talents in the local nursing homes, as well as in the public sector. She often went into older people’s homes to help with their hair and nail hygiene care, when they were not able to get out. She said she wanted to help them age with dignity. 

Nothing made Phyllis light up faster than babies! It was a magnetic draw for her, and she could calm a fussy baby faster than anyone. She wrote children’s stories for her kids and grandchildren, and even had one of them published. We rarely saw her without a smile on her face, and if we did, we knew we were in trouble! Phyllis was an amazing cook and was considered the local food pusher. If you left her house hungry, it was your own fault! She told us she felt like you could never go wrong by loving on people. And loving was something she did well. 

Throughout her lifetime, Phyllis was always active in church, school, and community activities. She held many jobs - telephone operator, housewife, dairy farmer, daycare provider, factory worker, stay at home mom, bookkeeper, salesclerk, and cosmetologist, but her favorite job titles were, “Dick’s wife, Mom, and MeMaw”. She will be greatly missed and lovingly remembered.

Phyllis was preceded in death by her parents, Roscoe and Gladys Smith, three brothers, Melvin Smith, Daryl Lancaster, and Robert “Bob” Smith, and six sisters, Fern (Lancaster) Williams, Hope (Lancaster) McAllister, Juanita “Nita” (Smith) Bierman, Loretta (Smith) Klos, Virginia (Lancaster) Burch, and Ruth (Smith) Tatum.