Phyllis Jean Krogh

One day in Fargo, North Dakota, the face of a precious newborn girl greeted two excited and expectant parents. She would be the first of three children, later joined by a sister and a brother. It was December 13, 1933. Wayne and Trudy rejoiced over their beloved bundle and gave her the name Phyllis Jean Carter.

Would Trudy and Wayne have believed it if you had told them their baby girl would grow up, marry a Navy pilot, and travel the United States and the world? They might have looked at you quizzically if you had told them she would eat things called “pizza” and “tacos” in far-off California; or that one day she would pack up a 4-year-old, 3-year-old and 10-day-old, move them to a new home, and hold down the fort while her husband put in the grueling work to earn his BS degree at the Naval Postgraduate School in beautiful Monterey, California. Their eyes may have widened to hear that she would climb aboard an airplane alongside other Navy wives to fly 13 long hours to Hong Kong for the chance to spend a few precious days with their husbands. They would no doubt have beamed with pride to hear that, not only would she welcome three children into the world, but also ten grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren, forging a legacy of faith and faithfulness.

Yet these were only a few of Phyllis’s adventures.

David Eugene Krogh and Phyllis Jean Carter, having started dating in high school, were wed in Fargo on April 7, 1956. Their first married adventure immediately ensued with a full-blown Midwestern blizzard to accompany them on their honeymoon. The adventures kept coming as they welcomed their first son, David Wayne, in March of 1957; with Steven Brooke following not long after in October 1958. Phyllis navigated their births at a military hospital on her own as the Navy felt it needed Dave in Alaska at those times. When Connie Jean ultimately joined her two big brothers in February 1962, she somehow managed to pull some strings with Uncle Sam and demanded her daddy be in attendance at her arrival.

Phyllis enjoyed staying home with her children and making home their haven. She had an uncanny knack for arranging antique pieces into charming interior décor vignettes and was a talented and avid seamstress. She beautifully crafted clothing and curtains for her family and later on fashioned and sold everything from teddy bears to geese and dolls, as well as shades for one-of-a-kind lamps. Her creative talents couldn’t be contained and also spilled outdoors where she was perpetually nurturing beautiful plants and flowers wherever the Navy sent them next.

Phyllis came to know Jesus through studying the Word of God in a Bible Study Fellowship group, and ever after was known for her quiet faith. She led Bible studies and prayer groups and once knocked on every door of her and Dave’s very long street, inviting each person who answered to their home to study the Bible. She eagerly shared her newfound faith with her children, and her spiritual impact has now spread to three generations.

After Dave retired from 23 years of serving in the Navy, he and Phyllis often “motor-homed” throughout the country, mainly visiting their children and grandchildren and frequently pulling off the road to meander through innumerable antique stores along their path. They both enjoyed the thrill of the hunt and discovering and restoring unique treasures that had their own stories to tell. The pinnacle of their motor home career was a seven-month odyssey through many parts of the United States celebrating 50 years of marriage.

Phyllis lived 91 years, just like her dad, passing away only one month shy of her 92nd birthday. She gracefully navigated her journey with quiet strength, courage, and resilience, embodying the fortitude required of a military spouse holding down the home front with three growing kids while her husband served far and wide in a variety of dangerous positions. She handled a staggering volume of change over her lifetime. Just one small example is that she began her adult life as a switchboard operator; manually connecting telephone calls by physically plugging cords into a switchboard. In juxtaposition, her eighties found her snapping and texting photos on her iPhone. Through it all she always kept forging ahead. At 91, she could still be spotted taking her daily walk.

Phyllis ended her earthly journey at The Pasea Senior Living Community in Chula Vista, California on November 14, 2025. Her beloved husband of 65 years, David Eugene Krogh, and her parents, Gertrude Ellen Carter and Charles Wayne Carter, preceded her in death. Phyllis is survived by her sister, Deanna Gayle Folsom (Gary), and brother, Larry Wayne Carter; sons, David Wayne Krogh (Kim) and Steven Brooke Krogh (Lois); daughter, Connie Jean Glanzer (Bryan); ten grandchildren; and 12 great grandchildren.

Phyllis’s family will always remember her quiet and gentle spirit, her laughter at Grandpa’s jokes, her lasagna, rhubarb pie and snowball cookies, her gift of bringing beauty to any place she lived, and her deep abiding faith in Jesus as her savior.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations in Phyllis’s memory be made to Bible Study Fellowship International at www.bfsinternational.org

“ ‘Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ ” John 14:1-6

“If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

“Therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outer person is decaying, yet our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

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