Christine Phillips

Our beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and great-greatgrandmother went to the arms of Jesus on Dec. 16, 2020, at the amazing age of 111.

Christine Phillips was born Oct. 7, 1909, on the family farm east of Loyal to John and Katie Kruse in a time when you rode the train from Dover to Kingfisher to do your shopping, cooked for the threshing crew and had an outdoor john.

She attended Excelsior one-room schoolhouse, which was one-half mile east of her farm.

Christine walked to school and it was uphill both ways.

She graduated from the eighth grade at Excelsior.

She married Ralph Phillips in 1935. They ran a dairy farm southwest of Hennessey for many years.

She filled in as a cook at Lacey school when needed.

After they left the farm and moved to Kingfisher, she cooked at the First Shamrock Nursing Home until her retirement.

At the spry age of 100, she was still helping serve meals at the Wheatheart Nutrition Center in Kingfisher.

She attended the First United Methodist Church and while at Countrywood Assisted Living and Memory Care, she always attended its Sunday morning service.

Christine never met a stranger. She loved to corner people when they came in to get their hair done at Countrywood so she could visit with them.

She believed in hard work and keeping a positive attitude. Her chicken and noodles and homemade pies were family favorites.

Her favorite saying was: “What’s done is done, you can’t dwell on it.”

Her nephew, Phil Berkenbile, describes her as a woman who watched people go off to World War I, lived through the Great Depression, Spanish Flu, the Dust Bowl, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the assassinations of JFK, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, 9/11, the Gulf wars, and now COVID.

A special thanks to Countrywood Assisted Living for their care.

She was preceded in death by her husband, parents and one brother, Louie Kruse.

She is survived by her daughter Shirley(Lynn) Luker of Crescent; grandsons Mike Hoskins of Mustang, Steven Hoskins of Loyal and granddaughter Christen (Russell) Rush of Crescent, step-grandson Jerry (Tammy) Luker of Yukon, and step-granddaughter Teresa (Eric) Edwards of Kingfisher; 11 great-grandchildren and seven great-great-grandchildren and two nephews.

Visitation will be at Sanders Funeral Service in Kingfisher from 1:30-7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 20.

Funeral service will be private and for family only at a later date under the direction of Sanders Funeral Service.