Mini Y. Phillips

Mini Yetter Phillips, 102, passed away peacefully in her sleep Friday, August 28, 2015 at exactly 5:00:00 pm, the same time she closed her business, Phillips Garden Mart, for 30 years. Her work here was done. After an illness free life, she suddenly succumbed to several massive heart attacks. Widely known for her exuberant life style and outspoken manner, she will be missed by many.

After graduating from then GSCW (now GCSU), she taught first grade at Virgil Powers Grammar school. When she attended a reunion there in her 90’s, she learned she had outlived not only all the faculty, but also all the first grade students she had taught. She went on to receive Masters Degrees from Mercer in the 1930s in Chemistry and in Psychology.

In 1941, she met, and then on October 18, 1941 married U.S. Army Regimental Sergeant Major George H. Phillips, of Natick, R.I., who was stationed at Camp Wheeler. George survived World War II, despite being in the third wave on Omaha Beach during the invasion of Normandy. He returned to Macon after the war. He and Mini enjoyed owning and operating Phillips Garden Mart from 1947 until 1977, when they retired. They saw their life’s work as having made Macon a more beautiful place with the trees, flowers and shrubs they sold and planted.

Before George’s death on April 7, 1997, they visited every state and National Park in the United States, every National Park and province in Canada, and 238 foreign countries. After George’s death, Mini resumed her premarital life as a party girl and “flapper”, directing her energies into the Macon Symphony where she served on the board, and in entertaining her friends and family. She enjoyed myrid social and civic activities and even more travel.

She was predeceased by her loving parents, Dellie (Dupree) and George F. Yetter, her beloved brother, George D. Yetter, and her husband, George Harold Phillips, Jr.

She is survived by a son, Thom Phillips (Billie Knox), a grandson, Thomas Phillips, Jr. (Debbie Tucker), a granddaughter, Apryle P. Kohut (Dr. Gary Kohut) of Charlotte, NC, two great-grand children, David Kohut and Alexandra Kohut, and a grandson, Christopher (Anne Zimmerman) Phillips of St. Louis, MO. Mini enjoyed wonderful loving relationships with a few special friends who included Jack and Helen Forester, Dr. James and Amanda Upshaw, and Loretta Boyd, all of Macon. She is also survived by a son, Glen Phillips of Milledgeville, GA.

She expressly suggested that friends, who chose to, support their local florist by sending flowers, which were her life’s work.

A celebration of “A Life Well Lived” will be held at Snow’s Memorial Chapel on Cherry Street, Monday, August 31, 2015 at 4:00 p.m. with The Honorable Judge Howard Simms and The Honorable Mayor Robert Reichert officiating. David Davis, High Sherriff of Bibb County will present a reading of the scriptures. A reception will be held after the service at the funeral.

Visit www.snowsmacon.com to express condolences.

Snow’s Memorial Chapel, Cherry St. has charge of the arrangements.

Mini's Euglogy

Mini Yetter Phillips lived for 102 years, but in any one of those 102 years I will venture that she lived more than most people live in a lifetime. Mini saw the world as a giant playground in which she spent her life exploring, always making new friends, seeking new vistas, reading new books...always finding new beauty to appreciate be it in a poem, a flower, a symphony or a child’s face.

Her life started in 1913 with loving, intelligent parents, Dellie and George Yetter, who opened the world for her both by the examples of their character and their appreciation of the value of education. They surrounded her with rocks and mineral collections, stuffed animals and birds, trees and flowers and pets, but perhaps most valuably with books. She was read to until she could herself read, and she was taught that books are precious, each one often passing on the wisdom of a person’s entire life. The Yetter household had walls of books on every subject she could dream about. In 1916 the family presented her with a baby brother, George, forever called Little George to separate him from his dad, also George. He was called little George all the days of his life, despite

his six foot 200 pound presence. He was a wonderful man.

In 1918 the influenza epidemic that killed 700,000 Americans, and 40 million world wide, hit the Yetter household hard. For two full weeks neither of her parents nor her baby brother were able to get out of bed. No neighbors would venture inside the house to help them for fear of contracting the disease. At five years old Mini emptied their slop jar of human waste, brought them water, and walked three blocks down, and back up, the steep Second Street hill to a small grocery store where her mother charged groceries, as was the custom of the time. She took them peanut butter, bread and milk. Until she

was 100 she never had a cold or the flu. Until the last few years she never took a pill of any kind, never even having a headache. She always attributed her uncanny health to a some kind of immunity imparted by the flu. What ever gift she had, it served her well...

From her father she gained her outgoing personality, as he was the Head Scoutmaster for all of Macon, a Shriner, and man who took his honor and his civic duties seriously. From her mother she learned the traditional things women were taught in that time, plus a curiosity about everything , and, an uncanny ability to size people up with what seemed often just a glance.

As she reached school age Mini discovered fun! The roaring 20’s were in full swing and so was MIni, from the first grade until, well, actually, until she married! Though she never let a cigarette or the lips of a boy who smoked one ever touch her lips, she was a Flapper in every decent way she could manage. Blessed with a remarkable IQ of 179, she easily finished her BS Degree at GSCW in Milledgeville with honors and began teaching the first

grade at Virgil Powers Grammar School on Second St.

Not many years ago, well into her 90s, she attended a reunion there. Not only had all of the faculty there with her died, but every one of several years of first grade students she had taught had also died. On occasion she was heard to mutter, “Everybody I ever knew is dead.”, referring to her peers. The last 25 years of her life she directed her efforts into making friends of younger people, who made her feel young, and whom she laughingly said they would

be around to come to her funeral. Not surprisingly, she outlived many of them!

Mini went on earn degrees in both Chemistry and Psychology at Mercer, but altered her plans to work for DuPont after she met George Phillips, of Natick, RI in the spring of 1941 while she was hosting a tour of flowering Macon for GIs arriving at Camp Wheeler. As she told George to get in her car, the older lady in charge of the volunteers told Mini she had to wait and take three more soldiers in her back seat. Mini’s quick retort was a sharp, “No, I don't!” and she sped away with George! Six months later they were married, and in July of 1943 Mini gave birth to a son, Tommy, Thom to us today. George left for Europe and and the Invasion of Normandy, where he was in the third wave on the first day amidst the horrible slaughter on Omaha Beach. He survived that day, and was unwounded throughout the war, but never forgot the horrors he had seen. He never spoke of Omaha Beach until late in his life, and then only once.

When he returned to Macon, seeking tranquility to recover, he and Mini left with only $300 on a six month tour of the US, camping in churchyards and farmers fields. George worked a few months in Yosemite National Park, then so unspoiled that walking to work one morning he reached down into the stream where they were camped and caught a huge rainbow trout, big enough to feed the three of them. People sleeping in tents then were rare, but both

were already unconventional, a trait they passed on.

In 1949 they opened a nursery, Phillips Garden Mart on Pio Nono Ave. They saw their life's work as having made Macon a more beautiful place through all the trees, flowers and shrubs they sold and planted. George successfully introduced many new species to this area.They spent their summers traveling North America. By the time they retired in 1977 they had visited all the states and national parks in the US, and all the provinces and national parks in Canada.

With the introduction of the mini-skirt in the 1960s, petite Mini, named M I N N I E at birth, changed her name to M I N I, with no surprise to anyone. Such antics are now a family tradition.

Upon retirement in 1997, after 30 years of working, Mini and George began their greatest adventure of all. They spent the rest of their lives traveling around the world! They managed to visit 238 countries. Their longest trip lasted 17 months, all lasted many months. They planned their routes, but never made reservations for meals or hotels. They mostly avoided group tours and tourist hotels, choosing instead the food and accommodations used by local business people which they found very inexpensive, but much cleaner than the haunts of locals. They went to countries that few Americans would venture into then: Iran, Afghanistan, Korea, to name a few, and even managed by subterfuge to get into Russia. In Bangkok they heard China was opening up so they flew to

Hong Kong, and finagled their way into China with the first group to visit, a special tour for the first travel agents!

Leaving Cambodia their plane came under fire from ground troops, and their bus once roared through a burning village that was being machine gunned by rebels in the Philippines. The driver shouted, “Quick, in the floor!” Everyone dove except Mini…”Of course I didn’t duck; I wanted to see what was happening.” she said afterward. She recalled crowds gathering around them in some remote countries as they just walked down the streets, the locals seeming to be afraid of them, many of the never having seen a white person before.

Mini’s backpack for the 17 month trip weighed only 9 pounds, George’s 17 pounds, including a Gaz stove and a pot. They often bought raw local food and prepared their own meals.

After George died in 1997, Mini grieved for a year or so, then it was almost as if something flipped the switch that put her back in party girl or flapper mode. She became deeply involved in the Macon Symphony, serving on its board, and involved in a myriad of other social activities and civic duties. She became inseparable friends and travel companions with James and Amanda Upshaw and Jack and Helen Forrester. She drove, lived alone and even dated until she was 97. She still held a valid driver’s license at age 100.

Her mind remained sharp most of the time up to the end. The last words she spoke were to her son, Tommy who held he in his arms, ”I love you, too.” she whispered.

And Mini, please know that all of us love you, too!