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Note: Born at home where she spent the early years of her life attending school at the "top of the hill" she was only twelve when her father died. The subsequent lose of her home by forclosure, followed by several moves and the need to go to work when only fourteen must have been tramatic as she often stressed that "you never should sell a home you owned". She and her sister Florence hid some of their childhood possesions inside the trunk of a big tree at the entrance to the road [Airport Road] to the homestead just before the family moved to Clarks Summit. She hired out as a domestic, cleaning homes until she met Stanley Phillips when she was about fifteen, she married when not quite sixteen and about September of 1919 moved with her husband and daughter Irene to the "Stock Farm" in Wayne Co. PA. where daughter Margaret and son Robert were born. It was at this stock farm [a sheep farm] that she developed her life-long distaste of lamb as every Sunday was a Lamb Roast and lamb was the meat served often during the week, she never again ate lamb after leaving this farm. She was a stong willed person but also needed to be with someone, she did not like living alone. She was a maticulus housewife, a good cook, her pumpkin pies were always in demand for any family dinner, but she would also go to outside employment when required by economic pressures. A good example of her personality is of her never learning to drive, always relying on her husband for transportation until his death, but then following his death she soon taught herself to drive and even purchased a new car to travel about the country. Her married history is much the same as her husband Stanley's until his death at New Milford, NY. It was impossible for her to maintain the home by herself, on her small pension, and she soon went to work for her son Stanley helping with his book-keeping and with her daughter Margaret helping with her sewing business. The home at New Milford was purchased by Stanley and divided into a two family dwelling where she remained until she married Ferris Pond of Afton, NY [whom she met through her sister-in-law, Cora [ Mathews/Greene] Pond. So Viola and Cora were sister-in-laws for both of their marriages. She auctioned many of her household items at New Milford and moved into Ferris' home at Afton where she spent the remaining years of her life. She became ill with circulatory problems which resulted in a prolonged hospitilization until it was determined that she was over medicated. Her medication adjusted she returned to Afton and eventually moved into her daughter Lillian's home where she expired at 86 years of age, cause of death was a cerebral hemmorage, as was her daughter 's just one and one-half year later. Her estate was worth about twenty thousand dollars after all expenses had been paid. She is buried with her first husband Stanley at Warwick Cemetery.
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