Ferrissa Mae Malcom Phipps passed from this life March 28, 2016, at the Pioneer Memorial Nursing Home in Mullen.
She was born on Aug. 18, 1927, in Gardiner, New York, to Ferris and Ethel Palmer Malcolm.
She graduated from high school in Montgomery, New York, in 1947.
At age 7, she traveled to the Sandhills of Nebraska to visit her great aunt, Ferrissa Morrow. While there, she met her future husband, Leonard Phipps. They were able to see each other several other times over the years when she would make the train trip out to visit relatives before being married on June 8, 1949, on her parents’ farm in New York.
Ferrissa loved her cats and living in the Sandhills with her cowboy and her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She fed countless people over the years from hay crews to cowboys to cattle buyers. No one ever went away hungry and they all remembered her quiet but capable nature.
Ferrissa was preceded in death by her husband, Leonard, and parents, Ethel and Ferris Malcom.
She is survived by her sons, Wayne (Fran) Phipps, of Berthoud, Colorado, and Gary (Glenda) Phipps, of Whitman; daughter, Lois (Jim) Hardy, of Mullen; brother-in-law, Doug (Alice) Phipps, of Mullen; grandchildren, Elissa Hardy, of Denver, Crystal (Wynn) Wiens and their children, Justin and Adam, of Mullen, Rob Hardy of Gothenburg, Heather (Erick) Johnson and their children, Makenna and Madisyn of North Platte, Brett (Jordyn) and their children Kaisley, Kendall and Grady, of Whitman, and Wade (Jamie) Phipps and their daughter Harper, of Whitman; and many other relatives and friends.
Services will be at 1:00 p.m. MT on Saturday, April 2, at the United Methodist Church in Mullen. A time of fellowship will follow at the church with burial at 3:30 p.m. MT at the Whitman Cemetery. Mullen Funeral Home in charge of arrangements.