Bonnie J. Phillips, a lifelong resident of rural Centralia, passed away peacefully at the age of 96 on Thursday, December 5, 2024. She was born July 17, 1928, in Centralia, the only child of Bonner C. and Hazel M. (Lambert) Smith. 
During the Depression, she and her parents moved to Hickory Hollow Farm on Raccoon Lake to live and help on the farm with her special aunt and uncle, Harmon and Helen (Lambert) Lackey. Her aunt was her mother’s twin sister, and her uncle was her father’s half-brother. Together with her parents, aunt and uncle and her grandmother, Essie Smith, she had a very blessed and wonderful childhood on the farm.
She attended grade school in the one room school, Maple Grove, which was located near her home beside the Centralia Country Club. She graduated from Centralia Township High School with the class of 1946 and was proud to have been an Orphan cheerleader for four years and captained the squad when the Orphans finished second in the state basketball tournament.
After graduation, she worked as a legal secretary for Centralia lawyer, Mr. Glenn Hodson. On June 11, 1949, she married her high school sweetheart, Richard H. “Dick” Phillips after he had returned from World War II. The wedding was a beautiful garden wedding on Hickory Hollow Farm. Together they enjoyed sixty-seven years of marriage before her husband passed in 2016.
In the early years of their marriage, she and her husband worked a farm together with her brother and sister-in-law, Vernon “Tag” and Ruby Phillips. After leaving the farm, she remained a devoted homemaker for her husband and children.
She was the oldest and longest serving member of the Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church where she was a devoted Sunday School teacher. Bonnie served her church in many different capacities including she and her husband serving as youth directors for many years.
She is survived by her son, Kirby Phillips of Salem and daughter, Sherry Phillips of Hickory Hollow Farm in Centralia. Also surviving are two sisters-in-law, Frieda and Barbara Phillips both of Centralia, and a large number of very special nieces and nephews. Her church family, whom she loved dearly, also survives.
She was preceded in death by her husband, parents, aunt and uncle, and her brothers and sisters-in-law, Raymond and Helen (Phillips) Richardson, John and Ruth Phillips, Vernon “Tag” and Ruby Phillips, Sevearn Phillips Jr., Don and Edith (Phillips) Greer, Dr. Tom and Joyce Phillips, and Jerry Phillips.
There will be no public visitation. The funeral services will be private and held at the Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church with Pastor Don Shaffer and Dr. Jimmie Fitzjerrells officiating. Burial will follow the service in the Zion Hill Church Cemetery.
Memorial donations may be made in her honor to the Zion Hill Baptist Church or to the Zion Hill Church Cemetery and will be accepted for the family at the Irvin Macz Funeral Home in Centralia, which is privileged to be assisting the family of Bonnie Phillips with arrangements. Online condolences and memories of Bonnie may be shared with the family by visiting maczfuneralhomes.com and/or on the funeral home’s Facebook page.
