SAMUEL JOSEPH PHILLIPS, age 91, passed away on Thursday, December 9, 2010 in Broken Arrow, OK. Sam was born on September 19, 1919 in Boonville, MO, the eldest of two sons born to Samuel A. and Clara (Smith) Phillips. He graduated from Shawnee-Mission High School with the class of 1937. During WWII Sam served in the US Army as a radio operator stationed in Bogota, Columbia helping to stop the infiltration of the Nazis in Central and South America. After the war Sam married Ellen Katherine Bechtold in 1948. They moved to Kansas City, MO where Sam was employed with Skelly Oil Co and started a family with their last of five children born in 1958.
In 1968 Sam moved his family to Tulsa, OK where he joined his uncle O J Smith in the operation of Smith Brothers Abstract & Title Co. Upon the death of his uncle O J Smith, Sam became the sole owner of the company until he sold it in 1989 and retired.
Sam was preceded in death by his parents Samuel A. Phillips and Clara M. Phillips, his brother Donald B. Phillips and his son Donald J. Phillips. He is survived by his wife Ellen of Broken Arrow, daughters Paula Durland and family of Fort Worth, Texas; Barbara Harris and family of Dayton, Ohio; Debbie Beauchamp and family of Tulsa, Oklahoma; and son Greg Phillips and family of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. There are 5 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at the Franciscan Villa Chapel at 9:30am, Saturday, December 11, 2010. Interment will follow at Calvary Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to the Catholic Charities. Fitzgerald Southwood Colonial Chapel, 918-291-3500. Online condolences may be left at www.fitzgeraldsouthwoodchapel.com