Lynn celebrates 102 years this year
GAF CENTENARIANS
The Golden Age Foundation (GAF) will honor LW centenarians on April 23. Shareholders who will be 99-1/2 years old in 2024 are welcome to sign up. For more information, call GAF volunteers Carl Kennedy at 661 810-9410; Beth Greeley, 714-329-3621; Cheryl Falconer, 714-904-1984; Fara McCartney, 714-625-5141 or Anna Derby, 562-3015339. The LW Weekly will feature stories about LW’s longest lived residents intermittently in the weeks leading up to the celebration.
Lyndell “Lynn” Elva Bohannon was born on Aug. 20, 1922, in Clarksville, Arkansas. The daughter of a coal miner, she grew up in Russellville and Lake Dardanelle area.
She graduated from Russellville High School and landed her first job working the night shift as a telephone operator. This is when she met her future husband, Clifford Phillips.
In 1942, she traveled to California on the train to join Clifford and marry him. Both settled in San Pedro where Lyndell worked as a long-distance operator. During World War II, she worked at Fort MacArthur and handled all military calls.
Five years after their daughter Phyllis was born, Lynn decided to stay home because Clifford had an excellent job with Western Electric. They moved to Long Beach in 1949 and went on to have two sons, Ronald and Roland.
In 1970, she went back to work as the head switchboard operator at Walkers Department store in downtown Long Beach. When Walkers went out of business, she was recruited by Buffum’s on Broadway downtown. She continued to work for Buffum’s when it moved into the then new Long Beach Mall until it closed.
After Clifford’s passing, Lynn moved into LW in March 1988. They were married 46 years.
Since Lynn could not stay away from a telephone switchboard, she became LW Health Care Center’s switchboard operator. She worked there for 20 years. During those two decades, she made numerous lifetime friends and had received several employee awards. In 2009, at the age of 87, she handed over her headset and retired for real. But she kept volunteering at the LW Library and HCC until 2013, at age 91.
Lyndell loved square dancing and was on the LW Women’s
Lynn Phillips with her son, Ro -
land Phillips. Bowling League. Nowadays, she keeps her mind sharp by solving cross puzzles and Sudoku at home. Being an avid sports spectator, Lynn enjoys watching golf and baseball, especially the Dodgers, on TV. She always roots for her home state team—University of Arkansas Razorbacks—whenever there is a chance.
