Phyllis Jean Clark

Phyllis Jean Clark (Shirk) was born April 5, 1936 to Edith and Clarence Shirk in Sedgwick, KS.  Phyllis passed peacefully May 4, 2022. Phyllis was preceded in death by her husband Gerald (Jerry) Clark, mother Edith Margaret Montgomery Shirk, father Clarence LeRoy Shirk, and brothers Lawrence, Paul, Lester and Clarence.

Phyllis grew up on the Shirk family homestead farm located outside Sedgwick, KS.  She was the only daughter in the Shirk family.  During her teens, the family moved to the town of Sedgwick while the boys continued to work the farm. Phyllis enjoyed growing up in a small town and attending school with her local friends. In her early 20’s, Phyllis was set up on a blind date by her father.  She met the love of her life on that date and married Gerald (Jerry) Clark on April 7, 1957.  She would spend the rest of her life with Jerry until his death in January 2022.  After marrying, Phyllis moved to Wichita with Jerry and started a career as a secretary for a local insurance firm. She continued working as a secretary thru the birth of their three children.  Phyllis and Jerry took vacations throughout the west for several years looking for a new place to call home.  In 1968, shortly after the birth of their third child, Phyllis and Jerry moved to Boise, Idaho.  Phyllis found a position with the Idaho State Seed Lab located at that time in downtown Boise and later moved to a site by the Idaho State Penitentiary.  Phyllis continued to work for the Seed Lab until she retired. In retirement she enjoyed working cross word puzzles, reading, word searches and jigsaw puzzles.

As her children grew, many weekend and weeklong camping trips were taken into the Idaho mountains to hunt and fish.  Everyone in the family knows of Phyllis’ lists.  The most famous one was the camping list.  This list was started after a fishing trip where a can opener was left at home.  Luckily Jerry’s “Leatherman” came to the rescue to pry open any needed canned food.  After this trip, Phyllis made a list of everything needed to be moved from the house to the camper, carefully making a check mark as each item was loaded.  This list grew throughout the years and was at least four pages long by the time Phyllis and Jerry gave up camping and sold their camper and truck.

The family knew Phyllis was a bit of a worry wart.  Jerry and their daughter Dena were out fishing in Hells Canyon one evening and were a little late getting back.  It was getting far too dark and as Jerry drove the boat back to the campground dock, he and Dena could see Phyllis standing on the point looking for them.  They exchanged looks and said to one another that they were in trouble, and they were.  Phyllis met them at the boat ramp letting them both know it was far to dark to still be fishing.  Their excuse was that the fish were really biting, and they had a full live well for proof.  Phyllis did enjoy eating the fish they caught that night.

Phyllis was a wonderful wife to Jerry and mother to her three children.  She is survived by Craig (Jan), Dena and Gwen (Steve), and grandmother to grandchildren Jonathan, Cassie, Gabriel and Joshua.  She always placed her family first.  She was greatly loved and will be missed very much.