Jack's Father

I had not seen my father since Frank left the family in 1941 and his location had been unknown. We did know that he served in the military, which helped the search. The National Cemetery page was recently upgraded and you can now search for veterans buried in those places. During a routine search I found that Frank had died in April 2003 at the age of 89 and is buried in Ft. Bliss National Cemetery at El Paso, Texas. I was even able to access the obituary in the El Paso paper with this information.

Another mystery solved.

It turns out that Frank had served in the Army during World War II and then made a military career in the Air Force, retiring in 1963.

The Phillips farm house burned to the ground in 1952 and destroyed all papers and pictures, but Mom was able to obtain three pictures of Frank from my grandmother. So, these are the only ones I have of dad. They appear to have been taken in 1938 or 1939 when he was driving a cab in Wichita, Kansas.

Ironically, I originally posted this information on June 9, 2004, which was the anniversary of not only Frank's birth, but mine as well.