Mary Virginia "Ginny" Phillips of Ormond Beach, Florida, entered eternal life on August 3, 2018, at home, surrounded by her family.  She was 82 years old.  She is reunited with her parents, Larry and Claudia Taylor, her brother and sister-in-law Larry and Leta Taylor, as well as her daughter Alice, her infant granddaughters Grace and Emily, and her life-long best friend Mary Jo Howard.

Ginny was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and after graduating from Grady High School, attended Georgia State University.  While there, a friend set her up on a blind date with a boy named Bill who attended nearby Georgia Tech.  She was charming and sweet; he was smart and adventurous.  A year later saw them married and marked the beginning of a love story that would span 62 years and give birth to three children and four grandchildren.

Her spirit is carried on by Bill and their two children Dave Phillips and Laura (Gabe) Saporito; her four granddaughters, Gabriella, Anna, Abby, and Rachel Saporito; two nieces, Caryl (John) Barker, Sandy (Chris) Hackett, and a multitude of friends from everywhere she'd ever been.

She was a member of her bridge club, the Halifax River Yacht Club, the Daytona Beach Symphony Society, and the Museum of Arts and Sciences, which made sense because she loved art, music, fun, friends, and bridge.  She'd been a member at St. James Episcopal Church since 1968, but never liked going to church alone, and never did quite forgive them for doing away with the 1928 prayer book.

Ginny was a court clerk for Volusia County for 30 years, and enjoyed every minute of it, simply because of all the interesting people she met.  In her free time she loved to read (a lot), do crossword puzzles, play bridge, and wander about her garden, where she was only too happy to show you her orchids, her pineapples, and her bananas…and to tell you the name of every single plant she had growing.

She loved going to museums and art shows, and always came home with something (from the latter).  She also loved art films, and didn't mind the subtitles at all.  Ginny loved clothes, shoes, and purses and had to keep taking over new closets in the house to contain them all.  She loved dancing to "Wooly Bully" and crying to "Time in a Bottle."  When she spoke, her voice always sounded like she was smiling.  That's because she was.

She loved being a mother and a grandmother, and took that job seriously, providing wisdom, encouragement, and advice on a regular basis, and a gentle "nudge" when necessary.  Her wisdom often came in her favorite sayings, like: "Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be," and "A good cook never lacks for friends," or "How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time."  Ginny valued education immensely, and viewed it as an investment in the future.  She saw to it that her children and grandchildren (so far) graduated from college.

Friends and family will gather to celebrate her life at 10:00 am on Friday, August 10 ^th , at Lohman Funeral Home in Ormond Beach.  The service will come right out of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer because that's what Ginny would want.