Posted: April 19, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail
Barbara Jean Cavender Phillips, 75, of Cross Lanes, died on April 12, 2018, in Angleton, Texas, after a long illness. She was born on November 22, 1942, to Ira Wilson Cavender Jr. and the former Naomi Edith Litton.
Descended from one of the Kanawha Valley’s earliest families, the Cavenders, she was a lifelong resident of the Charleston area except for a brief period as a child. After graduating from Elkview High School and Capital City Commercial College, she worked as a secretary for the Elk Refining Company before marrying her high-school sweetheart, Jerry Phillips, in 1963. With the arrival of her first child, she became a full-time homemaker, a job at which she excelled.
Her fascination with other cultures and outgoing nature prompted her to open her home to several foreign exchange students over the years and arrange host families for many more. She was a voracious reader and lover of the theatre. She was always ready to travel at the drop of a hat, whether in the U.S. (especially to New York City) or abroad; a passion she firmly instilled in her children.
