Mary Dolores Phillips

With breaking hearts, the family of Mary Dolores Phillips of Erie, PA, announces her passing on Monday, December 9, 2024, at the age of 98 years.

Our beloved mother, grandmother, and great- grandmother left us to join family who preceded her in death--her husband, Joseph A. Phillips; her daughter Michelle Roush (nee Phillips), her parents Francis and Victoria Miller (nee Sokolowski), and her baby daughter, who died at birth many years ago early in Dolores’ and Joseph’s marriage.

Mary Dolores, or “Dolores,” as she liked to be called, was born on September 22, 1926, in Hartford, CT. 

An awardee of a four-year academic scholarship, Dolores graduated Caldwell University in New Jersey. 

She worked in Japan for the U.S. Army during the Korean War, where she met and married Joseph A. Phillips in 1952. They celebrated sixty-seven years of marriage on March 19, 2019.

The couple located to Erie, PA, where they raised children; Mary Jo (Paul Winkelbauer), Cathie, James (Karen), Joseph (Kristine) Phillips, Laura Prylinski (nee Phillips), Michelle Roush (nee Phillips), and Natalie (Nick) Woznicki (nee Phillips). 

Dolores’ passion for teaching led her to a long career as an elementary teacher at Blessed Sacrament School, and it inspired all her children to pursue higher learning. Along the way, Dolores earned a Master’s degree at Gannon University. 

Her greatest joy in life was her seven children, nine grandchildren (Mallory, Ben, and Ryan (Tara) Prylinski; Justin Phillips, Logan, Adam, and Anna Woznicki, Sarah Wokulich , and Olivia Phillips; and five great- grandchildren (Noah and Jackson Wokulich, Jace and Roan Prylinski, and Aubrey Phillips). 

Her second greatest joy was challenging friends and family to games (Poker, Trivial Pursuit, Pinochle, Canasta, Scrabble) and entertainment of intellect like Jeopardy. (She was almost impossible to beat!) She loved poetry, gardens, turtles, nature, yard sales, and finding great deals.

Dolores was admired by family and friends for her deep faith and love, evidenced by her life of sacrifice for her children, her exceptional honesty and integrity, her always positive and cheerful outlook, and her endurance in the face of hardships, of which she never complained. She had a will of iron and a heart of gold. People and pets alike responded to her kind and gentle persona. 

Friends are invited to call at the Burton Quinn Scott Cremation and Funeral Services, West Ridge, 3801 W.26th St. on Sunday, December 15,2024 from 1:00 pm until 4:00 pm and also on Monday, December 16, 2024 in St. Andrew Catholic Church, 1116 W.7th St. from 9:00 am until 10:00 am at which time a Funeral Mass will be celebrated.

Burial will be at Gate of Heaven Cemetery. 

Memorial donations may be sent to Mercy Terrace Apartments, 430 East Grandview Blvd., Erie, PA 16504, in care of Mary Zenner.