Burnell Phillips - The Early Years

Family

The left photo is of Burnell's parents, Oren B. and Blanche E. Phillips. This is presumably a wedding photograph, date unknown. I was told that her unmarried name was something like "Frantz", and that the "B." in "Oren B." didn't stand for anything. She died before I was born and I met him only once that I can recall, in 1959, in Ohio. The right photo shows the growing family - Herbert Phillips at the top right and Burnell, Evelyn and Wallace in front. This would have been taken around 1914, assuming that Burnell was about five years old at the time.

Growing up with the Oren Phillips family. This collage is as Burnell assembled it, with his labels. The small Michigan town of Hastings, about 25 miles south-east from Grand Rapids, is mentioned twice in the materials I have. I don't know the significance of Hastings for the family.

Oren Phillips in his older years. This may have been taken around 1952. I don't know who the child is, although it could be his granddaughter Shirley Phillips.

The three children of Oren and Blanche Phillips, besides Burnell, were:

Evelyn, the youngest and the only girl. She married Jack Cornell and lived in Palo Alto, California. They had one child, Richard Cornell. Richard is a retired pharmacist and lives with his wife Linda in the attractive town of Arroyo Grande on the central California coast, in a house overlooking the "big arroyo." He has one daughter.
Wallace, the middle boy. Wallace married a woman named Millie and had, I believe, three children: Wallace Jr., Burnell and Shirley. Wallace and his family would visit us in Riverside occasionally when I was growing up. He worked for a gas company in Ohio. I exchanged Christmas cards with him for many years until his death in about 1995. I have no present contact with his children; the last address I have for Wallace's son Burnell was near Wooster, Ohio.
Herbert was the oldest child. He seems to have had more than a bit in common with the younger Howard Hughes. He was a dirt-track race car driver during the 1920s or 1930s; Burnell told me that he would sometimes ride along as Herbert's mechanic. Herbert later became a successful entrepreneur and did well at World War II production. He had one son, according to the (undated) newspaper reports. I never met the son and know nothing about him. Herbert also learned to fly at some point and purchased (presumably after World War II, date unknown) a Vultee BT-13 aircraft. His aviation career ended in July 1948, and not well.

Parma High School

Burnell was as much of a Big Man on Campus at Parma High School as it was possible to be without playing football. He was, among other honors, the president of the (18-member) senior class and editor of both the newspaper and yearbook.

Burnell's 1927 senior portrait

After High School

I don't know the full chronology of Burnell's activities from his high school graduation in 1927 to mid-1931. I do know that he attended Ohio State University for two years during that period, resulting in a lifetime loyalty to Buckeye football, but I do not know the exact dates of his attendance. He told me that he supported himself while at OSU by waiting on tables at fraternity houses, and that he, as a poor farm boy, got a lot of attitude from the well-off frat boys. He told me, or I inferred, that he left OSU because he could not support himself while attending school. That would certainly be understandable during the Depression. He could have left for other reasons; I don't know. He also told me that he and his brothers did a variety of work to make money during the Depression, including digging graves. The resume cards shown on the next page state that he worked in Kansas as a laborer for a gas pipline company in 1931 and 1932, and that from 1932 to 1936 he worked for a fruit orchard in Richfield, Ohio.

This photo is dated "32" and may illustrate some money-making work he did, or it could just show laying in firewood for the family home. I assume that it's him at the right.

There must be an interesting story here, but I don't know what it is. This deed has a recording date of December 18, 1930 on the reverse. It isn't apparent why Burnell's parents deeded a property to their 22-year-old son for what must have been the nominal sum of $10. The fact that the transaction was early in the Depression may have had something to do with it.

Last revised May 27, 2013