Darlene Phillips

On Christmas Day, 2013, a great voice in our lives was silenced. She was a force for political and social action, and she championed the underdog. She is and always will be the voice in the back of our heads that steadies us and guides us towards love, compassion and forgiveness.

Darlene Marie Phillips was born on the 4th of July, 1933 at the height of the depression. She was the last of four girls born to Alton and Thelma Morton in Salt Lake City. She grew up poor but happy and secure in the arms of a loving family. On a blind date at West High School, she met Warren S. Phillips. They married on July 10, 1952. Together they created a loving family of 5 children who were all born in Rose Park but raised in Bountiful. Her husband and all of her children survive her: Warren (husband); Robin Phillips (Janene), Bountiful; Vikki Thurston, Kanarraville: Morton (Marilyn) Phillips, Park City: Tamara Phillips, Bountiful: and Julia Phillips-Horsley Bountiful. She is also survived by her two sisters: Luana Besendorfer, Sandy, and Donna Turner, Kearns. She has 11 Grandchildren, 25 Great-Grandchildren and 1 Great-Great-Grandchild. Many other people have been brought into our family by "adoption" and are family as much as anyone else.

She is preceded in death by her parents, Alton and Thelma; her sister Dorothy Yost, her Grandson, David Phillips, and her sons-in-law David Horsley and Art Thurston.

Darlene''s immune system was damaged in the early days of nuclear testing. Despite grave illness all of her life, she raised a happy family, created and sold her own greeting cards, published stories about and for children, marched against atomic testing and racism and created beauty in her gardens and artwork. She learned to fish late in life and cherished time spent in the Uintas with her family.

She did everything with the "Big Bang" she came into the world with. She never gave up loving and working for a better world. In spite of illness, she was able to donate her eyes so that someone else could see the Milky Way she had been so excited to see herself when her cataracts were removed.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations to HEAL, Utah (824 S. 400 W. #111 Salt Lake City 84101) or the Utah Lions'' Eye Bank.

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. Tuesday, December 31, 2013 at the Bountiful Community Church, 150 N. 400 E. Bountiful. Friends may visit the family on Monday, December 30 from 6-8 p.m. at Lindquist''s Bountiful Mortuary 727 N. 400 E. and on Tuesday from 9:45-10:45 a.m. prior to the services at the church. Interment Bountiful City Cemetery. Condolences may be shared at www.lindquistmortuary.com