We recently learned of the passing of Jean Phipps. She died on June 6, 2021. Jean’s service and the memorial were held at the First United Methodist Church of Corvallis, OR on June 16, 2021. The following is copied from the obituary posted here.
Jean graduated from Rock Island Sr. High in 1940 and attended three-year nursing school at Ravenswood Hospital in Chicago, moving from a town of 42,000 to a city of 3.4 million with plenty of courage and pluck. After Jean graduated with an RN degree in 1943, she went on to become a surgical nurse, and work in private duty, as the Assistant Director of Nurses at a convalescent hospital, and for the Infantile Paralysis Foundation.
While working in Rockford, Illinois, during a polio outbreak, Jean met Captain JK Phipps, who was stationed at the nearby Camp Grant. The two fell in love and married on August 5, 1946, five days after July 31 – which was both their birthdays!
They spent 62 happy years together, living in Marshall, Texas, Rock Island, Illinois, Anaheim, California and Corvallis. While in Anaheim, the two grew their family with the addition of their daughters. After retirement, Jean and JK followed them to the Pacific Northwest, where they got to spend plenty of time with their grandchildren.
Jean and JK were also avid travelers and crossed the world during their time together. But Jean never let her adventures get in the way of what she truly treasured, her many friends, her family, her church, her patients, and her community. In her spare time, she enjoyed reading, baking (and everyone who knew her enjoyed her baking as well!), and handwork.
She was a member of the Methodist Church, OSU Extension Group, Friday Study Club, DAR, and PEO. When asked what she wanted to be remembered for, Jean said her sense of humor!
Jean’s husband preceded her in death, and she is survived by her daughters, Linda and Vicki; daughter-in-law Elaine, her son-in-law, Karl, her granddaughters, Netra, Laurel, and Anna, her grandson-in-law Raj, and her great-granddaughter (and the apple of her eye), Anita.
Cards and condolences can be sent care of McHenry Funeral Home, 206 NW 5th St., Corvallis, OR 97330. She was buried beside her beloved husband at Oak Lawn Cemetery. Memorials may be made to Safe Haven Animal Shelter in Albany.
