Phyllis Guyre Jones died November 24, 2009, after a prolonged struggle with multiple myeloma. Her indomitable spirit refused to let this disease slow her down until very near the end. She chose to spend her final days at home, where she passed quietly among familiar surroundings, under the care of her gathered family.
Phyllis was born May 28, 1931, in Orange, New Jersey, and raised in nearby Chatham. Among her various later homes were San Diego, California, where her children were mostly raised; Redding, California, where she retired; and Waterville, Maine, where she enjoyed spending her final years in close proximity to her only grandchild.
Phyllis is survived by her devoted husband of 54 years, Walter, whom she regarded as the best husband she could possibly have had, by her brother Kenneth Guyre, by her children Earl, Heather, Randolph, and Seth, by Randolph’s son Benjamin, by Walter’s daughters Bonnie and Mignon, by a widely extended family largely gathered by her enthusiastic genealogical research, and by a vast circle of friends whom she accumulated wherever she went, including extensive travel in North America, Europe, and other parts of the world.
Phyllis joined the Quakers at the University Friends Meeting in Seattle, in the Spring of 1959. She spent three years in Topsham, Maine, where she attended the Portland and Durham monthly meetings, although she was not a member. In 1962, Phyllis moved to San Diego and joined the La Jolla Monthly Meeting. In the early 1970s, a worship group was formed in San Diego, which she attended occasionally; it eventually became a
meeting, and she joined it. On retirement, Phyllis moved to Redding, CA, and joined the Redding Monthly Meeting. Then Phyllis followed her grandson to Maine in 2001 and joined the Vassalboro Monthly Meeting.
During the 40 years she was in California, Phyllis was highly active in the Pacific Yearly Meeting and held many positions, including membership in various committees, assorted clerkships of committees, the positions of statistical clerk, reading clerk, and treasurer; in recent years, until the end of her life, Phyllis served Vassalboro Monthly Meeting as Clerk of the Library Committee, as Statistical Clerk, and as a member of the Finance Committee, as well as helping organize, participating in, the musical program of VMM’s annual Christmas Celebration.
Phyllis devoted her life to education and music, combining them as a music and elementary school teacher, working in various volunteer capacities for schools, as well as home-schooling her children during the year they all lived in Czechoslovakia. Phyllis played cello in a number of community
orchestras until her health finally made it impossible. In recent years, she particularly enjoyed spending time as a volunteer for instrumental music in the Waterville public schools and participated as a cellist in the Augusta Symphony Orchestra.
Before her death, Phyllis expressed the hope that she will be remembered fondly by the thousands of students to whom she brought an appreciation for music during her lifetime. In accordance with her devotion to education, she donated her body to the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Memorial services will be held at the Quaker meeting houses in Palo Alto, California (December 19) and at East Vassalboro, Maine (December 27). Additionally, the Augusta Symphony Orchestra will dedicate its performance of Handel’s Messiah on December 12 to the memory of this beloved woman. In lieu of flowers, her family asks those who are moved to do so to contribute to charities in accordance with their memories of Phyllis and the things she held dear.