[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16155]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                IN MEMORIAM OF JUANITA RABOUIN PHILLIPS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Watson) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WATSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor and memorialize a great 
American, Juanita R. Phillips, a retired educator in the St. Louis 
public schools. She died of natural causes on Thursday, July 1, 2004, 3 
months shy of celebrating her 100th birthday.
  She was born in Chicago, Illinois, on September 26, 1904, 3 months, 
as I said, before her centennial. She attended the Clinton Iowa public 
schools and graduated in 1927 from the University of California at Los 
Angeles and earned a master's degree in English from Ohio State 
University.
  After graduation, she taught English at various historically black 
institutions such as Florida A&M College in Tallahassee, Florida, and 
Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia, before moving to St. Louis.

                              {time}  2030

  In 1943 she moved with her husband, Dr. A.C. Phillips, an educator 
who served as principal of Washington Technical, Vashon, and Central 
High Schools, and after retirement as a former president of New Age 
Federal Savings and Loan in North St. Louis.
  Mrs. Phillips continued her love for teaching English at Soldan High 
School, from which she retired in 1972, and subsequently served as a 
tutorial volunteer.
  During her lifetime, Mrs. Phillips remained engaged in various local 
and national organizations until she became well advanced in age. As a 
founding member and first president of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority's 
Alpha Gamma Chapter, my chapter, at UCLA in the 1920s, she also dated 
Ralph Bunche, a classmate while in college. She continued an active 
social life in St. Louis where she maintained membership in the 
Booklovers Club, the Garden Club, a local women's bridge club, as well 
as shared activities with her husband as an archousa in the Beta Eta 
Boule, The Anniversary Club, The Couples Club, and numerous civic and 
philanthropic projects. She was a voracious reader, avid gardener, a 
consummate traveler, and a generous hostess who enjoyed sharing her 
time and energy to make life more pleasant for her friends and family, 
and especially her grandchildren.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to say I just returned from the Alpha Kappa Alpha 
Convention, over 10,000 women, and announced to them her passing. But 
the remarkable thing is that she almost saw a full century of life and 
we, her family, she was my aunt, need to emulate her spirit because she 
believed in peace. She loved poetry, and she wrote to us poetically. 
The last conversation I had with her she said to me, I think I have 
just lived too long. And I responded, you will live forever in our 
hearts and our minds.

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