Phyllis M. Mann

December 10, 1926 - June 21, 2020

Queensbury – Phyllis M. Mann died at home at the Glen in Queensbury on June 21, 2020, a day of brilliant sunlight on the longest day of the year. Phyllis was born on December 10, 1926 in Binghamton, New York, the daughter of Erma Jaquay Smith and Philip Walker Smith, the younger sister by two years, to the day, of Loring Burr Smith. Phyllis’s memories of growing up were free spirited and happy, from roller-skating several miles to her piano lessons to attending neighborhood churches regardless of denomination, based on their activities for teenagers. Swimming and boating summers on the nearby Finger Lakes, Phyllis’s father built a cottage on Keuka, the smallest Finger Lake. Salutatorian of her high school class, Phyllis headed off to the University of Michigan. She thrived at the U of M, achieving Phi Beta Kappa in her Junior year. A superb Jeopardy player, far better than her husband or daughters, when asked where she had acquired so much knowledge, Phyllis would shrug and say that much of it was from her basic college courses in History, Literature, Psychology, 70 years before! Phyllis met her husband, Robert Edward Mann, at the University of Michigan, and they were married on June 12, 1949, the day after Phyllis graduated. Phyllis began teaching in the Dearborn public school system, loving her work as a Fourth Grade teacher. Excited to find herself pregnant for her first child, she told her principle she would be taking some time off after the birth, and was taken aback when he told her that pregnant women were not proper teachers for young children. Phyllis turned her gaze forward to the challenges and joys of a growing new family. Phyllis and Bob raised four children in Dearborn, Michigan, where Bob worked as a Manufacturing Engineer for the Ford Motor Company. Phyllis remained at home with her children while they were small, remembered by her daughters as a wonderful Girl Scout troop leader and camp counselor. She returned to teaching at an alternative high school in Dearborn after her children were sufficiently grown. Phyllis and Bob enjoyed travelling, exploring Northern Michigan and Canadian lakes in summer, making detours to view local waterfalls Phyllis discovered in the travel literature. After retirement, there was time for cruises to distant destinations such as Alaska and Hawaii. In 2006, Phyllis and Bob moved to the Glen at Hiland Meadows, a senior living community in Queensbury. Reading was as natural as breathing to both Phyllis and Bob, and the Dearborn Public Library was fortunately replaced by the Crandall Library, particularly its outreach program, supplying Phyllis with Historical fiction, as well as the mystery/suspense novels she enjoyed along with Bob. Phyllis also treasured her relationships with the women of Wiawaka, a bible study group at the Glens Falls Methodist church. Phyllis was preceded in death by her son, Robert Phillip, in 1975, and by her beloved husband, Bob, on January 8, 2019, after 69 years of marriage. Phyllis is survived by her three daughters, Patricia Mann; Jennifer Lange, and her husband Paul; Rosalind Williams, and her husband, David; and four grandchildren, Matthew Lange, Christopher Lange and his wife, Lindsay Dreyer; Kaitlyn Williams,, and Sean Williams; as well as a great grandchild, Sebastion Philip Lange, and a sister, Gloria Bouwman. Phyllis will also be sadly missed by her cousin, Regina Shahade and by her dear friends, Donna and Tom Olkowski, of Dearborn, MI. We offer special thanks to the High Peaks Hospice for their loving commitment to Phyllis’s palliative care. In addition, to the Glen as a community in which Phyllis and Bob found enduring friendships and an environment rich in both comfort and social stimulation. Donations in Phyllis Mann’s memory may be made to the Crandall Public Library. A celebration of Phyllis Mann’s life will be held at the Glen at some later date when restrictions on social gatherings have lifted.