Extracted from The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS)
Tuesday, August 10, 1954

W. R. Phillips, Sr. Dies Sunday Morning

William Robert Phillips, Sr., 71-year-old resident of Rt. 2, Crystal Springs, died at 10 p.m. Sunday following a brief illness.

Mr. Phillips was born and grew up in Smith county, but had lived in Copiah country for the past fifty years. He owned and operated a farm near Crystal Springs and was a member of the Methodist church.

He is survived by two daughters, Mrs. W. W. Barber, Jackson, and Mrs. Varnell [sic Larnel] Lyle, Pine Bluff, Ark.; a son, W. R. Phillips, Jr., Jackson; a sister, Mrs. John Wall, Jackson; four brothers, John and Otho Phillips, both of Crystal Springs, Tillman Phillips, Kennedy, Texas, and Loy Phillips, Jackson, and four grandchildren.

Funeral services will be conducted at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Mt. Pleasant Methodist church, Copiah county, with the Reverend Frank Dement, pastor of the Crystal Springs Methodist church, officiating.

Frank, Belton, Dewey and Harvey Phillips, Carlis Wall, and Volie Morgan, nephews of the dead man, will serve as pallbearers.

The body was transferred Monday morning from the Baldwin Funeral Home, Jackson, to the Baldwin Brothers Funeral Home, Crystal Springs, where it will lie in state until the funeral hour.

Interment will be in the Crystal Springs cemetery.