Candy Cheri Poole Phillips

Candy Cheri Poole Phillips, 70, died Friday, December 22, 2017, from complications resulting from cancer and a long endured liver disease. Her husband, her three children, and her mother were at her side.

A long-time Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) leader, she devoted her energies to supporting missionary work locally, nationally, and globally. In addition to WMU, she was involved with the Baptist World Alliance, and she was a board member of Baptist Center for Ethics, a board member of Begin Anew (Christian Women’s Job Corps), a past board member of The Next Door, and an active member at Nashville Baptist Church, serving in a variety of volunteer positions. In the 1990s, Mrs. Phillips was instrumental in the founding of Tennessee Christian Women’s Job Corps (now Begin Anew) and was part of the “wild praying women” at Nashville First Baptist Church who founded The Next Door where she served as a founding board member.

Mrs. Phillips was executive director of the Tennessee WMU and a past board member of its national association. Her years of commitment to WMU included service on a number of committees. Prior to becoming executive director in 2003, she served as the organization’s President for four years, and when she moved to Tennessee in 1994, she had served as Virginia WMU’s Recording Secretary. She became active in WMU in 1980 while living in Nevada where she was identified as a potential leader. She was proudest of leading an effort by the Tennessee WMU to raise funds and build a home in Mt. Juliet for the use of international missionary families who are on temporary stateside assignment. She worked with WMU members of all ages to raise funds and then to design, construct, furnish, and maintain the missionary house. She also led the WMU effort to raise $18,175,000 from 2003 to 2014 to benefit missions and ministries of Tennessee Baptists. The Tennessee WMU Foundation also increased its endowment dramatically during her tenure.

Travel on behalf of missionary and WMU support included more than 130,000 miles inside the State of Tennessee and countless miles domestically in the United States and internationally on trips to Brazil, England, and Italy.

The pride of her life was her family. She delighted in “CanCan Camp” for her grandchildren, Christmas celebrations, beach weeks, and long family weekends in various cities showing her grandchildren the nation’s different cultures. She and her husband loved to travel and delighted in their trips to the Holy Land, following “footsteps of Paul” in Turkey and Greece, a riverboat cruise this past summer from Budapest, Hungry to Amsterdam, Netherlands, as well as 17 ocean cruises over the years. They also loved long weekends with family in Virginia and Texas as well as their Blackberry Group, which was composed of couples who gathered annually for fellowship and worship on Sunday morning.

Born in Lawton, Oklahoma, as a child she lived in Virginia, Kentucky, and Texas where she met her husband, Bill R. Phillips. They met at Six Flags Over Texas where she worked as a French Riverboat Girl, and he was a Confederate Soldier. They would have been married 52 years on January 28, 2018. She often remarked that she and Bill grew up together. As a couple, career led them to live in Vandenburg AFB, California; Hanford and Visalia, California; Reno and Carson City, Nevada; the Washington D.C. area (twice); Nebraska; and finally to Tennessee.

Mrs. Phillips was the daughter of the late Dan Poole, a Coca-Cola executive, and Doris Poole of Duncanville, Texas.

In addition to her husband, Bill, and mother, Doris Poole of Duncanville, Texas, Mrs. Phillips is survived by three grown children and their spouses; Kevin and Kathryn Phillips of Nashville, Jodi and Dan Puhlick of Gainesville, Virginia, and Jaala and Bobby Cox of Murfreesboro. She is also survived by seven grandchildren; Tyler Paul Puhlick, Jackson Sevier Phillips, Peyton Ray Puhlick, Helen Elizabeth Phillips, Katy Spence Phillips, Reagan Dawn Cox, and Carleigh Cheri Puhlick. She had two siblings; Danee Gay Roedl and Cortne Brent Poole, both of Duncanville, Texas. She also had numerous cousins, nephews, and nieces.

Family and friends will gather at First Baptist Church on Thursday, December 28, 2017 for visitation from ten o’clock to eleven o’clock in the morning, followed by a memorial service at eleven o’clock. Interment at Middle Tennessee Veterans Cemetery to take place at a later date.

Honorary pallbearers are women and men of the WMU and participants in the Blackberry Group.

In lieu of flowers the family requests those who wish make a contribution in Mrs. Phillips’ memory to one of the following: WMU Foundation, Begin Anew, Baptist Center for Ethics, or The Next Door.