Joe Phillips

Joe Edgar Phillips was born in Roswell on April 19, 1924 to Mary Harriet (Hendricks) and Joel Edgar Phillips. They lived on a ranch at the foot of Capitan Mountain, and Joe went to first and second grade in a one room school house on Baca Canyon Road.
When he was eight, the family moved to Capitan where he chopped wood and paid the $4 he earned for each cord to the local hardware store until he paid for a bicycle. After he finished eighth grade, the family moved to Carrizozo where he graduated
high school. Joe excelled in football and basketball all four years and was chosen for the All State Basketball Team his senior year. He attended one semester at Socorro School of Mines before going to work as an accountant for Hayner and Burns Construction Co.,
utility installers for the new military air bases in Clovis, Alamogordo, Hobbs, and Roswell.

He married Margaret Porter in 1942, and the two of them spent time preparing for Joe's departure to the service. When the war was over, Joe and Margaret settled in Roswell. Joe worked for Powers Oil Company running a Phillips 66 service station at 10th and Main.
In 1954, he and his brother bought the Hondo cafe, bar, service station, and motel. In 1956 the family moved back to Roswell where Joe ran the Phillips jobbership for Mr. Powers. Eventually he bought the company and renamed it the J & R Oil Company. He operated
it until he retired in 1994.

Joe was an amazing father to his five children, attending piano and dance recitals, baseball and basketball games, and family picnics in the mountains. He was a charter member of the Roswell Sertoma Club, supported The Boys and Girls Club, and directed the New
Mexico State Golden Gloves Tournament with his friend Dub Storey. He enjoyed cheering the Dallas Cowboys on, playing golf on courses from Leadville, CO to the Bahamas, and mowing the Phillips' compound with his tractor. He and Margaret took their fifth-wheel
on many camping trips to Indian Lakes and traveled to different vacation spots in their motorhome.

Joe was very proud of his large, extended family. Every Thursday afternoon for more than thirty years, he and Margaret-called "Grump" and "Mimi" by the grandkids-welcomed their grown children, grandchildren, greats, uncles, aunts, cousins, friends, and neighbors
for coffee hour at their home.

Preceding Joe in death are his parents Edgar and Hattie, his brother Richard, and his first grandbaby, Jamie Waide.

Joe is survived by his cherished and devoted wife of 76 years, Margaret, and by their five children and their spouses: Claudia and husband James Waide, Ronnie and wife Gretchen Phillips, Joanne and husband John MacCallum, Rissie and husband Mitch Daubert,
and Meg and husband Rondall Tidmore-who all live in the area. He leaves fifteen grandchildren, twenty-eight great grandchildren, and one great-great grandchild. Also surviving him are his sisters, Mary Lou Welsh and Lynn Werner.

A memorial service will be held Thursday, October 11th at First United Methodist Church at 10:00 am. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Cowboy Bell Scholarship Fund.

Service

Memorial Service

First United Methodist Church
200 N. Pennsylvania Ave.
Roswell, NM  88201
Thursday, October 11, 2018
10:00 am

Cemetery

South Park Cemetery
3101 S. Main St.
Roswell, NM  88203

Memorial Contributions

Cowboy Bell Scholarship Fund
200 N. Pennsylvania Avenue
Roswell, NM  88201