GALLANT PHYLLIS - Phyllis Hetfield Gallant, 84 Ormond Beach, a longtime resident of the Daytona Beach area, died Thursday, Nov. 22 2012.

Phyllis Clare Hetfield was born Feb. 9 1928 in New York City the firstborn child of Phyllis Clare and Andrew Hetfield. As a child she vacationed in the former Seabreeze area with her parents. After graduation from Orlando High School in 1946 she attended Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wis.

She moved to this area permanently in the early 1950s taking a job at The News-Journal on Orange Avenue. There she worked at various jobs including switchboard operator and assistant to Publisher Julius Davidson. It was also there - in 1954 - that she met the newspaper's new real estate editor - John Gallant. After a brief courtship the couple married Dec. 26 1954 at St. Paul's Catholic Church. She worked until the birth of her first child Ian. Later the family expanded by three more children - Ginny, Thomas, and Sarah. She later returned to work in the Commercial Printing Division of the newspaper and ultimately retired from the library in the 1990s.

She was member of St. Brendan's Catholic Church her faith was very important to her. A veteran globetrotter, she and her husband traveled the world to every continent except Antarctica. She was a docent at the Museum of Arts and Sciences and volunteered at the Palmetto Club. She enjoyed needlepoint and was an avid reader. She loved politics and worked as a poll-worker during elections.

She was predeceased by her husband John; her sister Sarah Jane Hetfield. She is survived by four children, Ian Andrew, Ormond Beach; Ginny Gallant Embree (Jim), Massachusetts; Thomas Gallant (Libby), Daytona Beach; and Sarah McCormick, Jacksonville; a sister, Anne Duffin (Michael) Delaware; a sister-in-law, Cecille Gallant Fort Wayne, IN.; a cousin Coralie Williams (Col. Charles Williams), Jacksonville; three grandchildren, Alexandra Embree, and Margaret and Maxwell Gallant.

Memorial services will be at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 7, 2012 at Lohman Funeral Home Ormond, 733 W. Granada Blvd., with Father Richard Grasso officiating. Memorial donations may be made to Florida Hospital HospiceCare 770 W. Granada Blvd. Suite 304 Ormond Beach FL 32174. Arrangements are under the careful direction of Lohman Funeral Home Ormond.