If you have ever wondered what it was like growing up in a Norman Rockwell type community, ask Phyllis Buck. Phyllis grew up on a large farm, amid a very big family, roamed the nearby woods, rode horses and attended a one-room school.

Phyllis’ grandparents were from Scotland and England and were definitely hardy souls who worked hard, did not complain and solved problems as they came up.  After immigrating, the family settled in Minnesota near Windom, a town of 3,000 not too far from South Dakota and Iowa. 

Phyllis’ birth was attended by a country doctor who had delivered her mother’s first born. Phyllis’ mother was widowed at age 40, continued to farm 160 acres alone, raise her children, kept a large garden and lived into her nineties. Phyllis’ father loved the land and continually expanded their property by purchasing nearby farms. The family ended up with over 800 acres which they cultivated or leased out. Her mother was an accomplished seamstress whose services were in demand. Phyllis had so many siblings that the children lived in two rather different families due to the changes over time and the circumstances of her parents. The younger children all went to college but most of the children stayed in Minnesota, except Phyllis. 

The family were members of the nearby Baptist church and attended multiple times every week. Holidays were big family gatherings with Scandinavian traditions of Christmas trees with flickering (real) candles, lots of food brought by all the guests, gatherings for all family celebrations and lots of cousins to add to the fun.  At harvest time, her mother and grandmother would cook for days to feed dozens of threshers who arrived with huge harvesting machines and then went on to the next farm job.

Growing up, Phyllis remembers a ‘peaceful’ childhood in the country, riding bikes and horses, getting pulled by horses hitched to small carts, inventing all sorts of games and activities with siblings, and spending time with her maternal grandmother. While her grandmother had a no-nonsense bearing, she was loving and enjoyed showing Phyllis lots of domestic tasks. With only about 12 -15 other students, Phyllis attended a one-room school from 1^st to 5^th grades.  Her remaining grades were spent in Windom’s high school. Phyllis remembers being scared, overwhelmed, quiet and shy among all the students in the new, larger school.   

During high school, Phyllis was fascinated by her biology class, especially when they studied the human body. Her career choice, nursing, was strongly influenced by her biology class and her older sister who had become a nurse. Phyllis was accepted into Methodist-Kahler School of Nursing which was, at that time, affiliated with Rochester’s Mayo Clinic. The nursing students worked with patients at the Mayo Clinic. After getting a nursing degree, she and four other friends moved to Denver to work at Presbyterian Hospital. While there, she met Fredrick Buck, who was visiting his father, who was a patient. Fred, a Colorado native, worked as a forester up in Routt National Forest near Ward, Colorado. He later moved back to Denver, where he met Phyllis. They dated and were married. They lived, mostly, in Denver and were married for 58 years. 

Knowing the lumber business, Fred became a lumber wholesaler who purchased lumber from across the United States and sold it to various lumber companies. Phyllis worked as a nurse until their children arrived and she was able to take several years off. Bachelor of Science degree and a Master of Public Health from the University of Colorado. After working for many years in public health, Phyllis graduated from a massage school in Denver and worked in doctor’s office as an RN Massage Therapist doing deep muscle massage. 

Phyllis and Fred’s family expanded with the addition of two daughters, Liesl and Gretchen. Liesl, a graphic designer, worked in the marketing department for National Jewish Hospital and has two children. Gretchen worked as a prosecuting attorney. She lives in Grand Junction, is a judge and has two children. Phyllis and Fred loved to travel and joined Ports-O-Call, a travel club with flights and trips all over the world. After every trip, participants receive a small bar which gets added in a series to hang from their name badge. Phyllis and Fred had name badges with a series of trip destinations that must measure 13 -14 inches long! 

Phyllis and her family were very active, hiking, downhill skiing and swimming, all of which she did for over four decades. She and Fred even moved to Vail for a year to enjoy mountain living. When home, she enjoyed reading, doing puzzles, gardening, entertaining, cooking and supporting all the activities her daughters were doing. When Phyllis was 62, she started quilting. While she knew how to sew, she taught herself how to quilt and successfully tackled some complicated projects.

In January of 2000, she and Fred moved into the Lowry neighborhood in order to downsize and be closer to Liesl and her family. Phyllis joined Montview when Gil Horn was one of the three pastors and was impressed by the music and how involved Montview was in the community. Phyllis regularly attended Sunday services, the speaker series, the Women’s Book Club, Prayer Shawl Ministry and just recently has joined the Montview Quilters. In 2019, Fred passed away after a short illness and Phyllis has been alone for the past seven years. 

Phyllis credits her longevity to good genetics, always eating a sensible diet, daily exercise, walking regularly, being curious to learn new things, having a strong social network and being close to her family. She is caring, likes all different people, is tolerant, and tries to follow her mother’s model of never criticizing. She remembers her mother handling stress by going out to work in her garden or sewing and often saying, “Don’t get upset about things you can’t change.” This advice seems to have worked well for Phyllis as she has weathered all kinds of change and difficulties and continues to be optimistic and outgoing.

– Submitted by Brooke Durland and Phyllis Buck