Phyllis Jean Linale

It is with profound sorrow that I announce the passing of

my beloved sister Phyllis Jean Starling Linale. She was 79 and half years old. She passed peacefully in the ICU at Ogden Regional Medical Center while trying to cope with the effects of COPD and recover from an unplanned major surgery. She fought valiantly but her body was so fragile, that while she didn’t give up on it; her body gave up on her. I was fortunate enough to be there, holding her hand and telling her how much I loved her.

Most called her “Phyl” but a few lucky ones of us could call her “Sissy, Sis, Aunt Daisy or Aunt Phyl.” To me she was always “Sissy” no matter how old we got.

Sissy was born in January, 1947 in Marion, Virginia to Eugene Starling and Castle Pauline (Plummer) Starling. She was their first child and much loved by all her grandparents, great uncles, and uncles and their wives. Of course, she was the first grandchild on either side and I have the mountains of pictures to prove it. I came along fifteen months later and once I learned to walk, we were pretty inseparable.

Our father was in the Air Force and we traveled around the country from Texas to Alaska (when it wasn’t even a state but a territory!). In 1959, while living in Sumter, S.C. we lost our Dad to a heart attack at the young age of 39 years. Our mother remarried in November 1960 and in 1963 our step-father Owen Jay Mitchell (also Air Force) had orders to Homestead AFB in Homestead, Florida.

Sissy graduated from South Dade High School in 1965 and tried a year at the local “junior college” and decided it was not for her at that particular time in her life. In 1966 she moved from Homestead, to Miami and began working for Bell Telephone and then for Florida Power and Light and worked for them for 18 years. In 1967 she married Eugene Linale and helped raise and adopted his infant daughter Wendy Linale. In the mid-80s, Sissy and Gene separated and Sissy headed to Mouth of Wilson, VA to take care of our aging grandfather on the family farm as our grandmother was in a nursing home. He passed in 1989. In the early summer of 1990 I talked her into relocating to Utah to live with me. Once she relocated, she began searching for a job and ended working for the original Mattrix Corporation in their help desk facility. She was able to move up in the organization throughout its various iterations as it ultimately became Convergys. In 1998 she was offered a position in the Jacksonville, FL office. While there she was twice sent to various parts of India to help move the HelpDesk function there. She continued to work for them in Florida until the fall of 2009, when she was able to return to Utah to live with our step father and me and work off site. Our step-father died in February 2010. Since then we have lived together in our family home. Sissy retired in March 2012 and I followed in April 2012. Being retirees we initially did pretty much whatever we wanted. In 2015 we had one really great road trip with one of my great-grand daughters. As we’ve aged extended travel has been limited due to health issues but we managed to keep our selves otherwise entertained.

Sissy was preceded in death by her beloved grandparents, Paul and Annie Plummer, her father Eugene Starling, her mother Castle Plummer Starling Mitchell, and her step-father Owen Jay Mitchell. She is survived by her sister Linda, her niece Andy, twin grandnieces Leslie and Leigh Ann, and great grand nieces Paige and Olivia. She is also survived by Fred and Myrna who she considered her brother and sister of the heart.

Per Sissy’s request she will be cremated and there will be no service. Cremation is under the direction of the Neptune Society of Utah. Scattering of her ashes will occur at a later time by her family.

I would like to express a sincere thank you to the staff of the Ogden Regional Medical Center’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU), the Intermediate Care Unit, and the Acute Rehabilation Unit for their gentle and loving care they provided to my Sissy. Extra special thank you to Breanna and Taylor of the ICU and Dee Crowton of Bristol Hospice.

Goodbye my Sissy, I will miss you so terribly much and will always love you.