March 4, 1926 ~ August 6, 2021 (age 95)
Phyllis June McReynolds, 95, of Longmont, Colorado, beloved mother, grandmother, and wife passed away at home on August 6, 2021 of natural causes.
She was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1926 and later adopted by loving parents, Lionel Bert Stevens and Alice Hones Stevens. At the age of eight, her family moved from the Detroit area to Drayton Plains, Michigan. It was in Drayton Plains that Phyllis met a young boy who became her friend and later her husband, William Dale McReynolds (Bill). Phyllis attended elementary and junior high school in Drayton Plains. In 1944, she graduated with her classmates from a nearby high school in Pontiac, Michigan. As a high schooler, Phyllis helped care for her mother, Alice, who passed away from cancer shortly after she graduated.
Phyllis then entered the workplace, as a bookkeeper, and continued to work until she had children. When Bill McReynolds returned from the Navy at the end of World War II, he and Phyllis rekindled their friendship. They were married on March 4, 1948. Bill adored her and they were married for 65 years until his death in 2013. Their lives were centered in Waterford and Pontiac where they raised two daughters, Kimberly and Karen. Then in 2004, Phyllis and Bill moved to Longmont, Colorado to be near their daughter, Karen. In 2018-19, her daughter Kim and son-in-law Dennis Gonzalez, also moved to Longmont. Phyllis is survived by her daughters, Karen Ann McReynolds and Kimberly McReynolds (Dennis Gonzalez), and her grandchildren Benito Gonzalez (Anne- Michael Gonzalez) and Marisa Gonzalez. She was loved and is fondly remembered by her only niece, Joy Creamer, of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Phyllis loved the Rocky Mountains and her new home in Longmont. She was a bird watcher and animal lover. She retained a lifelong fondness for the big band music of her youth. In the final years of her life nothing brought her greater contentment than watching birds feeding from the bird feeder outside her window with her calico cat, Lyla, purring in her lap. In lieu of flowers, condolence cards may be sent to The McReynolds-Gonzalez Family, 1922 Sunlight Drive, Longmont, CO 80504.
