Jean Virginia (Fenton) Phillips (1923 - 2017)

Born 1923 in Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States

Ancestors

Died 1 Dec 2017 at about age 94 in Fond du Lac, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, United States

Biography

The daughter of Horace Fenton Jr. and Lillian (Donsing) Dishong, Jean was born in Milwaukee in 1923. Her parents divorced by 1928, and Jean and her mother moved into her maternal grandparents' home, with her mother finding work as a bookkeeper at a machinery manufacturing plant.^[1]

Research Notes

She is found on the 1940 census at age 17, as "Jean Phillips," the sister-in-law of either George Marlier or his wife, Lillian B. Marlier.^[2] She passed away in 2017; her obituary lists her children and her origins but says nothing about her husband. The narrative from her obituary, which is on her FindAGrave memoria,^[3] states that she graduated from South Milwaukee High School, served with WAVES at Great Lakes in Illinois from 1944 to 1945, and that she worked as a nurses aid at GranCare. Her children included Dana, Pamela, Barbara, David, William, Walter, and Patricia. It mentions her half-brothers, Jack Fenton and Henry and Robers Hughes, and her her sister, Geraldine (none of which match the name of the sibling reported on the 1940 census.) Her body was cremated, with the remains in the possession of a family member.

Sources

1. ↑ "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X9SS-7LP : accessed 23 September 2020), Jean Fenton in household of Henry W Donsing, South Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 366, sheet 5B, line 51, family 109, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 2600; FHL microfilm 2,342,334.
2. ↑ United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls. Year: 1940; Census Place: Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Roll: m-t0627-04560; Page: 61A; Enumeration District: 72-460: MILWAUKEE CITY WARD 20 (TRACT 65 - PART). Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Ancestry Record 2442 #82317850 with attached Image
3. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #185647664