Anne Allbright Phillips
Anne Allbright Phillips of Little Rock, Arkansas, whose life was defined by her love for her children and in later life her grandchildren, died Sunday night, March 8, in her sleep with family by her side. She was 84. Anne lived a full life marked by a profound curiosity in all things, a deep kindness for others and a love of nature.
"She was a master of revealing," her former husband and Blytheville, Ark. native, Russell Phillips of Philadelphia said. "If she said to me once she said twenty times, 'You know one thing I am continually amazed by, you are constantly seeing things.'
"She had a kind of mind which was tuned," he said. "She was adept at availing the tools of discovery. And, she wouldn't put up with any maudlin conversation."
Anne was born May 17, 1930 in McGehee, Arkansas. The daughter of the late Nita and Fount Allbright of Little Rock, "Annie" was the youngest of three children. She had two brothers, the late Bryce Allbright and Charles Allbright of Little Rock.
Anne was a superb actor. She attended Hendrix College and the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville where she won the campus award for the best actress of 1952. "She was the only one not acting," read one review of her talent.
Always with a book, she came from a long line of attentive, even literary Arkansans — grand-daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Flnley Allbright of Valley Springs, Ark., and the late Mr. and Mrs. Ray Raymond Ramey of Mountain Home, Ark.
"She was loved by all who knew her," said her daughter Sally, all the more by her grand-children Michael, Katherine, Olivia, Theo, Emma and Matt.
Annie is with her mother and father, grandmother and grandfather. A long-time member of the Audubon Society, Anne is with all birds now. She is with her cat, Bea and is survived by her cat, Alice.
She carries on in all of nature and with her loving God. All who she knew, living and gone, echo her favorite words: "I love you."
She is survived by her children Russ Phillips, Pat Phillips, Sally Phillips Scott-Rector and John Phillips, and her brother Charles Allbright, all who now carry her love in their hearts and in their care for family and friends.
Before she died, Anne requested to be cremated and for a simple marker to be placed in the ground bearing the words "She Was."
A gathering for family and friends will be held at her home in Little Rock, Saturday March 14, at 2 p.m. In lieu of flowers, Anne requested memorials go to the Audubon Society of Central Arkansas, ascabird.org
Published March 11, 2015