Phyllis Esther Younts

Phyllis Esther Younts was born in Osceola, Missouri on September 7, 1923. After the completion of High School in Appleton City, Missouri, Phyllis lived in Kansas City for a short time with her mom. She then one day boarded a train to Enid, Oklahoma where she earned a degree in Religious Education at Philips University. During college she worked at odd jobs, paying her own way for the education. When she graduated her journey led to Ada where she became the Director of Religious Education at First Christian Church. It is there that Phyllis met Vernon E. Younts, Jr. After a brief courtship they were married on May 21, 1948. Two children were born in the following years: Teddy Michael in 1949 and Robert Edward in 1951. Later Phyllis returned to college at East Central in Ada and earned a teaching certificate. She then taught in the Stonewall school for 20 years, teaching at all levels the subjects of music, English, speech, and drama. The untimely death of her husband, Vernon, in 1968, left Phyllis as the sole provider for two young boys. She stepped up and managed the tasks well. The couple was married for just more than 21 years. Four years later, Phyllis returned to college at Oklahoma State University, sold her home in Stonewall, bought a house in Ada, and then for ten years was the Library and Media Center Director for Ada High School. In addition, she assisted with the drama productions done by the High School. Then in 1983, after thirty years in public education, she retired. Not being able to sit at home, she immediately found employment as the Assistant to the Director of Prison Fellowship for the state of Oklahoma. Phyllis then worked in this position for three years.

Her retirement then gave way to being a full time volunteer and servant. Phyllis had always loved her church, since saying yes to Jesus at the early age of eight. It was normal that she serve the church, first at First Christian in Ada and then at First United Methodist, so extensively. Phyllis spent her hours in volunteer work – teaching children and adults, directing Bible Schools, singing in choirs and playing the piano, giving devotions at nursing homes, organizing prayer groups and sending out cards to home-bound people, participating in mission assignments in Mexico, Alaska, and Palestine. She worked with various church related organizations such as The Walk to Emmaus, The Christian Ashram, United Methodist Women, Prison Fellowship Angel Tree, and Oklahoma Volunteers in Mission. She was a certified Lay Speaker for the United Methodist Church, and often traveled to churches around Ada leading worship services and preaching.

In the final seventeen years of her life, Phyllis lived in Tulsa and was a very active member of the Asbury United Methodist congregation. There she organized and taught aerobics for seniors, sung in the Ambassadors Choir, taught Bible studies, participated in prayer teams, volunteered in the church office, and often taught her own Pathfinders Sunday School class.

Additionally, this servant volunteered in numerous other ways. She served as Worthy Matron in the Order of the Eastern Star on three different occasions, and she was an adult sponsor for the Rainbow Girls. For more than ten years Phyllis volunteered at the Cancer Treatment Center in Tulsa.

At the end of life for Phyllis, on March 9, 2012 in Tulsa, she was preceded in death by her parents, her brother and sister, and her husband. She leaves behind her two sons and their wives – Ted and Pam of Fort Worth, Texas, and Bob and Dana of Yukon, Oklahoma. She is survived, as well, by four grandchildren – Amanda from Forth Worth, Bobbie and her husband, Joseph from Oklahoma City, Philip from Moore, and Spencer from Oklahoma City. Additionally she leaves a great step grandson, Jordan, and a soon to be born great grandchild. The friends and fellow Christians that shared her journey are too numerous to name. Phyllis was a disciple and servant of Jesus.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to her church or to the American Cancer Society.