Obituary for
V.N. "Bud" Phillips
V. N. (Bud) Phillips, age 87, went to be with the Lord Monday, January 9, 2017, at Commonwealth Senior Living.
Bud was born on Sunday night at 11:00 P.M. August 25, 1929, in the Big Piney Valley, Beech Grove Community, near Ft. Douglas post office in Northeastern Johnson County, Arkansas. He was the youngest of seven children born to J. W. Phillips and Susannah Maggard Phillips.
On April 7, 1945, he made a profession of faith in Christ in a revival meeting preached by Rev. James Card in the Ft. Douglas school house. He was baptized at Clarksville, Arkansas, on the night of July 4, 1945. He began his ministry on May 20, 1945, delivering his first sermon at about 2:00 P.M. standing under a scrub oak tree near the gate of the old Ft. Douglas Cemetery, as the annual memorial service was in progress.
In late June 1945, he left home and began working at the College of the Ozarks at Clarksville, Arkansas. He was fifteen years old at the time. He continued to preach and finally traveled extensively as an evangelist. His revival campaigns were conducted wherever the door of opportunity opened. Many were held in country schools, various churches, some in open air arbors, one was in a county courthouse. Though having much success during those early years, he later confessed that he was not a true Christian and was not really converted until January, 1949. This conversion came as he was holding a revival at Vendor, in Newton County, Arkansas.
According to his own testimony “winter ended in January that year, for thereafter the birds were singing, flowers were blooming, and balmy breezes were warming his soul within”. He was again baptized by Rev. Den Montgomery in the War Eagle River, near McMurray Bridge, between Huntsville and Alabam, Madison County, Arkansas. He referred to that period from April, 1945, to January, 1949, as the “dark years” and used the experience to admonish other Christians to make sure of their salvation.
His evangelistic work enlarged greatly after the 1949 experience. Later, along with this work, he operated a tract society which placed Christian literature all over America and into several foreign countries. For a time in the early 1950’s he was connected with the Evangelical Mountain Mission at Hazard, Kentucky. During that time he ministered to the mining areas of the Hazard coal field, and in other rural areas of that section. In August he moved to Bristol, Tennessee, and for a time was connected with the Graham Institute and Evangelistic Association. He also had a ministry with the Bristol Salvation Army. Later he went to Texas for further schooling. He was ordained at Blackey, Kentucky, on Saturday, Nov. 3, 1956.
At various times through the years he has operated and worked at different jobs and businesses. In 1957 he founded the Hudson Realty Company at Hudson, North Carolina. Later he operated the Bus Station Café at Clarksville, Arkansas. But in these pursuits he could never find peace or purpose. In later years he had great satisfaction from a counseling ministry.
In June 1957, he began his first pastoral ministry. This was with the Poovey Church near Hudson, Caldwell County, North Carolina. Later pastorates include Valley Springs, Everton, Omaha, Bergman, and Valley View, all in Boone County, Arkansas. In 1965 he became pastor of the New Hope Church near Batesville, Independence County, Arkansas. For four years and eight months he pastored the First Cumberland Presbyterian Church at Harrison, Arkansas and at the same time had the nearby Capps, Arkansas Presbyterian Church. In March of 1974, he assumed the pastorate of Greendale Chapel in Abingdon and continued until September, 1976.
When he first came to Bristol in 1953, he immediately fell in love with the twin cities. Although he left the area several times in the following years, he always returned to his beloved town. He moved from Greendale to East State Street in Bristol in 1975. In November of 1982, he moved to 214 Johnson Street to start renovations on an old house which he would later name “Pleasant Hill” and lived there for the next 32 years. During the following years he pursued one of his lifelong ambitions—writing. He used information he had gathered since 1953 from early Bristol residents, continued to research the history of the Bristol area, and began to write about his chosen city. He eventually wrote several books of local history, authored a very popular newspaper column, had two television shows, one radio show, gave countless speeches and conducted numerous tours, all dedicated to the exhaustive history of his adopted town. “Bud Phillips Day” was celebrated in Bristol on May 5, 2004 and on April 27, 2008, he received a Mayor’s Outstanding Citizens Award. In 2006, he was made the Official Historian of Bristol, Virginia/Tennessee. Some his early writings include his “Maggard Family History”, “Ozark Cousins” and “Miracle On Greendale Creek”.
He was a faithful member of Greendale Chapel in Abingdon where he had served as Church Clerk for over 40 years. He had also written the weekly Church Bulletin for the past 41 years.
He never married, always contending that he was married to a cause.
In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by one sister, Elma Donaldson; and two brothers, Escar Phillips and Lester Phillips.
Survivors include two sisters, Ola Roberds of Wichita, Kansas, and Ollie Henson of Eagle River, Alaska; one brother, Lewis Phillips of Sikeston, Missouri; his adopted family, Jerry and Dorinda Eggers, Laura Eggers Greer, Aaron Greer, and Sarah Greer, all of Abingdon; several nieces and nephews; and a host of friends.
In keeping with Bud’s wishes, his body will be cremated. A memorial service will be held Thursday, January 12, 2017, at 7:00 P.M. at Greendale Chapel, Porterfield Highway, Abingdon, Virginia, with the Rev. Jerry A. Eggers officiating. Visitation will be from 5:00 P.M. until time of the service. A committal service will be held at 1:00 P.M. Friday, January 13, 2017, at Bud’s beloved EAST HILL CEMETERY. Friends are asked to assemble at the cemetery by 12:50 P.M. The family will receive friends anytime at the former home of Dora Mae Eggers, 17480 Jerry Lane, Abingdon, Virginia, where Bud had made his home before moving to Commonwealth Senior Living one year ago. Memorial contributions may be made to Greendale Chapel, P. O. Box 1314, Abingdon, Virginia, 24212.
