Emily JoAnne Phillips, daughter of Darrell and Valerie Voyles Phillips, all of Fayetteville, Ga., died in a house fire that also claimed the lives of her parents and her beloved Welsh Corgi, BoBo (short for Beauregard), on Sunday, April 6, 2014.
Just shy of her 30th birthday, Emily attended Georgia Southern College and State University and was a Starr’s Mill graduate employed by Delta Dental who will be remembered most for her non-judgmental caring, a trait that was likely the silver lining in the clouds of bullying she endured. “She is the most compassionate person I’ve ever met,” says her friend Jason Gaskins. “She always championed the underdog, and with her words as well as with her actions.”
Emily had a way of seeing characteristics and traits in others that often went overlooked. “She thought higher of me than I did of myself,” her brother Daniel says. “She recognized my potential and encouraged me.”
Emily is preceded in death by her grandparents Charles (Charlie) Voyles and Gordon and Estine Phillips.
She is survived by her grandmother Helen Buffington Voyles; her brother Daniel (Alexis) Phillips; uncles Larry Voyles and Eddie Phillips; aunts Dorothy Phillips, Judith Kayse, and Betty Hayes; a niece and a nephew; and many other loving cousins and friends.
A Celebration of Life service will be held for Valerie, Darrell, and Emily on Saturday, April 19, 2014 at 3 p.m. in the Worship Center at Fayetteville First Baptist Church. Interment will take place at a later date. The family will receive friends at the church from 2 to 3 p.m. before the service.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made in Emily’s name to the Annie Armstrong Mission Fund at Fayetteville First Baptist Church, 205 Stonewall Avenue East, Fayetteville, Ga. 30214.
Carl J. Mowell & Son Funeral Home, Fayetteville – www.mowellfuneralhome.com
