Phyllis Lorraine Bruce

On April 5th, 2023, the evening of the first day of Passover, Phyllis Lorraine Bruce (Blaylock), 73, of Arlington, Washington, peacefully departed this world while sleeping. After a long struggle with COPD and short battle with small cell carcinoma, she is now at rest in the hands of God.

Phyllis Lorraine Blaylock was born on February 12th, 1950 in San Francisco, California and grew up in South San Francisco. As a young child, Phyllis always said she wanted God in her life and she frequently prayed for him to watch over her and her family. She and her 2 sisters spent a lot of time outside, on the grassy hillside nearby, playing with the neighborhood kids, exploring nature, going to the beach, and going on adventures. They constantly went to the roller rink and amusement park near the bay. They sometimes spent summertime up north in the woodsy town of Guerneville, California. Throughout her school years, Phyllis was an excellent artist and tap-dancer. In 10th grade (Jan 1966), Phyllis completed the “Red Cross Care of the Sick & Injured Home Nursing Course”. She graduated high school in June 1968 and married her neighbor and high school boyfriend, Robert James Harper, on November 30, 1968. While Robert was stationed in Italy with the US Army, she developed a love for Roman and Italian art and further developed her artistic skills. Their first son David was born there. Soon after returning home to California, Robert & Phyllis divorced but she continued her studies in art, attended some college, and learned to play acoustic guitar. On November 22, 1975, Phyllis married Vern Olson (Norman Verner Olson) while he was obtaining his seminary degree and she became a pastor’s wife (Lutheran Church Missouri Synod). During their 10-year marriage, their children, Faith, Peter, Benjamin and Jonathan were born. After her second divorce in the mid-1980’s, Phyllis continued to walk with God, develop her creativity and guitar skills. She raised her kids with knowledge of God and taught them a love of music. She loved to sing with her kids and became a wonderful guitar-player. Phyllis was exceptionally creative. She absolutely loved gardening and plants, drawing/coloring and sewing (quilting, fabric dolls & more). Everything she created was incredible, detailed and of exceptional quality and skill. Phyllis immensely enjoyed being in the mountains or at the ocean, searching for antiques in abandoned ghost towns, and learned to fish and hunt deer. On September 1, 2007, Phyllis married Vernon Joseph Bruce (Vern). He was profoundly kind and they had a wonderful, loving marriage with a lot of road-trip adventures. She and Vern were longtime members of the Arlington American Legion, Post 76. Just after their 10th anniversary, Phyllis lost Vern to complications with lung cancer on September 13, 2017.

Throughout her entire life, Phyllis was a nature-loving, incredibly stoic, soulful, quiet, reserved, daydreamer and deep-thinker. She was calm, reflective and liked to take things easy. She enjoyed watching her family and friends converse, experience joy and loved listening to their stories. She liked to laugh and she found a lot of humor in the ironies of life. She was a great listener and very intuitive. Her faith in God was unshakable and she continually held onto her hope in salvation through Jesus no matter how rough life was. She cared about spiritual and existential matters, world events, politics and read a lot of informational books and studied scripture. She was deeply patriotic and loved her country and the military. She was fascinated by history and enjoyed pondering antiquities. She liked to watch mysterious, crime-solving British TV shows. Her favorite music consisted mostly of folk, country (bluegrass, classic and gospel), 1930’s – 50’s jazz & blues, instrumental and various Christian worship songs. Phyllis loved poetry, such as Edgar Guest and biblical Psalms. Some of her favorite artists were Leonardo da Vinci, MC Escher, Norman Rockwell, Warner Sallman and Mary Engelbreit. In her life, she has been a homemaker, newspaper print-machine operator, scout leader, Sunday-school teacher, sweatshop seamstress, discount-retail clerk, florist, nursing home medical assistant, creator & seller of her own handcrafted dolls and crafts, and a bartender.

Although Phyllis didn’t have much money, she was extremely generous. She sometimes went without in order to help others. She regularly donated to the following organizations:

The American Legion (Post 76), Arlington, WA

American Red Cross of Snohomish Co, Everett, WA

Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Bethesda, MD

The Gideon’s International, Nashville, TN

St Joseph’s Indian School, Chamberlain SD (Lakota / Sioux)

Phyllis requested that she and her husband, Vernon Bruce, be buried together in the historic small family cemetery of her ancestors, near her father and sister.

West Harmony Cemetery

Poteau Mountain Rd

Hartford, Arkansas 72938

There is so much more about our mom that we wanted to gather and share. We love our mama and miss her deeply. We want to thank our families and friends for all the love, comfort and support you have given us during mom’s illness and after her passing. Also, thank you, cousin Bob Garrett of Hartford, Arkansas and Weller Funeral Home (Kelcie). God bless you all.