Two years ago today, Phyllis Stephenson Crandell Florence left this mortal world at 11 pm. I knew her as Mom, but now I know a lot more about the child and young woman known as Phyllis Lee. She was the youngest daughter in a family full of daughters. (Only one son, Frank, grew to adulthood.) Her oldest sister, Ruth, didn't even know her mother was pregnant until Elizabeth went into labor.
Ruth, Mayme, Helen, Dorothy, and Mary took on much of the child care of Phyllis after she was born in 1927. She felt very safe in the bosom of the family and reminisced about playing cards, singing songs around the piano, and caring for animals on the farm, near Hazelton, Kansas. Mother "Lizzie" took in sewing. Father Charles Sylvester, "Ves", worked on the farm in summers and for the railroad in winters. He was the only Stephenson son to live long enough to have a family.
Her sisters and brother doted on Phyllis. There are several portraits of the young Phyllis in her collection. The stock market crash of 1929 didn't affect her or her family. But in the 1930s, the Dust Bowl came and, eventually, the Stephensons moved into the closest large town of Wichita, Kansas. Ves went to work in a meat packing factory. He took the seats out of his car so he could deliver more meat. He moonlighted as a policeman at night. Lizzie continued taking in sewing.
The oldest Stephenson daughters had married by this time and were starting families of their own. Ruth and her husband moved away to Jackson, Mississippi. It was decided that Phyllis would move there too, because Ruth was lonely. They kept each other company, and Ruth saw that Phyllis received her high school diploma.
Back in Wichita, it was the end of World War II and soldiers were returning. They gathered at a night club called the Blue Moon, where famous jazz musicians like Benny Goodman, Lawrence Welk and Tommy Dorsey came to play. The Blue Moon was located on South Oliver Street, right on the runway of an airfield. Below, Phyllis is pictured third from left, with her sister Mary and Mary's husband Alan on the left, and on the right, her friend Mary Van Syoc and husband Van. John Dotson, owner of the Blue Moon, is seated next to Phyllis.
He couldn't get enough of flying, and took on any aviation job he could get: crop dusting, small aircraft flights, seeding clouds. He was regularly seen around the airfield, and it wasn't long before he was invited by his friend/business partner, Eddie Ottaway, to drop in to the Blue Moon for some R&R.
Harry must have been charmed by the innocence, beauty, and sweet adoration that Phyllis gave him, and he was also swayed by the persuasive skills of her sisters. So, on February 4, 1948, Phyllis's 21st birthday, she and Harry were standing at the altar of the Methodist chapel in downtown Wichita, she in a smart suit and he in a dapper outfit, saying their vows. Eddie Ottaway was at Harry's side, and Phyllis's sister Mary was at hers.
A side benefit of the marriage was that Harry was able to move out of his childhood home full of daughters and a divorced mother. He was the oldest son (his brother Kenny was a Navy soldier) and his sisters and mother leaned on him for help. The newlyweds moved into a brick house on Royal Road and lived there until their family grew to a daughter (me) and a son, with another child on the way. Then, Harry's golfing buddy, Dick Brabham, an architect, designed a mid-century modern house on Brentwood Drive, and the family moved there. Across George Washington Blvd. was the house and pool of their friends Pauline and Eddie Ottaway. Phyllis and the children spent many summer days there. They also visited Joyland Amusement Park quite often, as it was owned by Eddie Ottaway.
