Phyllis June Hurd Obituary

Phyllis June Phelps was born at Penrose/Glockner Hospital in Colorado Springs, July 8, 1934. She went home to her savior, December 5, 2013, after a seven year battle with Pick's Disease. She died peacefully at home with her daughters and husband by her side.

Phyllis grew up in Manitou Springs, where she spent the first twelve years of her life. During that time three brothers and a sister joined the family. After she completed elementary school the family moved to Kansas.

Phyllis completed junior high school in Colby. She sang in the school choir and began developing a beautiful soprano voice. She also joined the Girl Scouts where she won several awards. After her father completed his work in Colby, the family moved to Steamboat Springs. There she attended high school.

She got a kick out of the fact that she received invitations to three schools when they would have a reunion. She attended get togethers for all three.

During her high school years she met the Savior whom she loved and served the rest of her life. She started singing in choirs, did solos in churches and for public events, and began teaching Sunday school which she did for about 50 years. In her senior years she was Homecoming Queen and DeMolay Sweetheart. She also became engaged to her future husband Jim Hurd.

After high school Phyllis fulfilled a passion for teaching by attending Colorado College in Greeley (now UNC). Jim was also a student there. They decided that two could live cheaper than one so they married on September 6, 1953 in Steamboat Springs. Jim graduated in 1955 and was immediately drafted into the Army so Phyllis continued her education while Jim was deployed to Korea. She wrote to him almost every day fifteen months.

Jim returned home in 1957 and the couple remained in Greely. Phyllis graduated in 1958 and began a long career in education.

Phyllis taught school in Kersey, Colorado, Greeley and Falcon where she retired with honors in 1999. She was in "Whos Who Among Americas Teachers" twice during her career. The family had moved to Colorado Springs in 1972.

Jim and Phyllis had three daughters so Phyllis took time off to be a stay-at-home mom but stayed active in their schools as a substitute teacher and teachers aide. She continued to teach and to tutor until 2005, when she started her long journey with dementia.

Phyllis was preceded in death by her parents James K. Phelps and Georgia Goding Phelps, a brother Paul Phelps and a her brother and sister-in-law, Charles L. Hurd and Nancy Jean Scott Hurd.

Phyllis is survived by her husband Jim, daughter Andrea L. Houk (Jim) of Cascade; daughter Deborah K. Moore (Eric) of Canon City; daughter Tamara A. Allen (Jim) of West Babylon, New York; also surviving is her brother Jim Phelps (Annie) of Brookings, Oregon; brother Dan Phelps (Linda) of Bend, Oregon; sister Carol Ann Mercer (Jim) of Creswell, Oregon; and her sister-in-law Wendy Osborn Phelps of Scarsdale, New York.

She leaves behind her grandson, Tylor C. Moore of Kawasakishi, Japan and her granddaughter, Kodee S. Moore Browning (Bobby) of Lowell, Arkansas along with many cousins, nieces, nephews and friends.

Internment will take place at the Hurds' Family plot, Fairview Cemetery in Craig, Colorado.

A Memorial Service will be held at Springs Funeral Services, 3115 E. Platte Ave in Colorado Springs, 11:00 a.m. Saturday, January 4, 2013. Following the service an old fashioned potluck dinner will be held in their reception room.

Contributions in Phyllis's Memory may be made to Faith Bible Church, 1447 Hersel Blvd. West Babylon , NY 11704 or to the Alzheimer's Association, 2315 Bott Ave. Colorado Springs, CO 80904.