1939 – 2021
Phyllis Ann Weekes (or Phil, as she was known by her husband, Hubert) died at age 81, on April 21, 2021. Just before her death, she resided in Long Island, New York. Born in Adrian, Michigan, on November 23, 1939, Phyllis one of sixteen children in the home of Allen H. Hayford and Luella Mae (Bennett).
Phyllis completed her high school education at Spring Vale Academy in Owosso, Michigan. She went on to study at Midwest Bible College in Stanberry, Missouri, and worked in the institution’s publishing house. Soon after, she became the dean of girls at her boarding high school alma mater.
Later, Phyllis met Hubert Worley Weekes (from Trinidad and Tobago) in Texas at a General Conference Convention, and they married on August 3, 1969, in Houston. The couple moved to Bronx, New York, and then on to Long Island, where they raised five children together. They were married for 39 years, until they were separated at Hubert’s death.
After working as the director of arts for the aged, Phyllis became a substitute teacher and taught for many years. She was the students’ favorite sub and was given numerous awards from the school district for her work in the classroom. Substitute teaching was important to Phyllis because she could work with children, and the job enabled her to be home when her children returned home from school each day.
As a pastor’s wife, Phyllis supported her husband in doing the Lord’s work. The two of them worked side-by-side in Brooklyn, New York. She held various positions in the church, but the one dearest to her heart was finding exciting and engaging ways to teach the children’s Sabbath school classes.
In addition to living in New York, Phyllis and Hubert resided in several other places over the course of their marriage: Missouri, Trinidad and Tobago, Florida, Michigan, and Oklahoma. They later added two more children to their family.
Phyllis was known for her British-type humor with traditional American jargon. She was talented in a number of areas. Her hobbies included traveling, playing the harmonica and accordion, collecting musical instruments, homesteading, making recyclable arts and crafts, crocheting, doing macrame, knitting, and acrylic and oil painting. She said that her greatest achievement was getting her “MRS. degree,” after being married to her best friend.
Phyllis was the mother of Debbie, Marcia (Richards), David, Heidi (Khalil), Priscilla, Autumn (Willess), and Tabitha (Boyles); grandmother of Tiffinnie, Alexander, Keziah, Elisabeth, Isaiah, Elijah, Anicah, and Immanuel Weekes, Kanaan, Kinesa, Malachi, Emerald, and Jubilee Khalil, Gregory Blackshear, Hadassah, Alexandria, Zion, and Ezekiel Albert, Issaac Willess, Elijah, Lily, Zendayen, and Tinuviel Boyles; great-grandmother of J’Shaun Saunders, Lexi Weekes, Enmber, Noah, and Markany Khalil, and Lucas Self; sister of 14 late siblings, save one: Shirley Beverly.
Footage from her Celebration of Life can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrkdwPC1du8&t=8783s.
