Phyllis Selser

Phyllis Selser, 85, of Clinton, died Saturday, June 14, 2014 north of Clinton on the Mississippi River after a tragic boating accident. Funeral Services will be 1:00pm, Thursday, June 19, 2014 at the Clinton Chapel Snell-Zornig Funeral Homes & Crematory. Burial will be in the Oakland Cemetery. Serving as pallbearers will be James A. Selser, Jr., Michael Stoltenberg, Donny Stage, Bruce Selser, Terry Selser, and Nevada Gehrig. Visitation will be from 3:00 to 6:00pm Wednesday at the funeral home. Online condolences may be expressed by visiting her obituary at www.snellzornig.com . She was born Nancy Phyllis Johnson on August 9, 1928 in El Dorado, Illinois daughter of Orville D. Johnson and Della N. Trusty. On January 21, 1949 she married James Edwin Selser in Rock Island, Illinois, he preceded her in death October 30, 1976. She is survived by four daughters, Sandy I. Dawson (Albany, IL), Penny A. Soto (Dewitt, IA), Genny G. Clark (Fulton, IL), Denise Selser (Clinton, IA) and three sons, James A. Selser (Clinton, IA) , Bruce Selser (Clinton, IA), Terry Selser (Deridder, LA). Her other son Charles Ray Selser died with her in the same boating accident on June 14, 2014. Phyllis Selser lived the majority of her life in Clinton, raising her eight children. Later in life she enjoyed traveling and took many trips visiting her children when they moved to other states and countries with her friend Harlan Bartels who preceded her in death on June 29, 2007. She was always a very social personality, and enjoyed spending the day going from person to person, business to business, sharing bits of laughter and discussing any bit of news. In her later sixties Phyllis starting showing signs of memory loss and agitation in evening hours, indicating in hindsight the early stages of Alzheimer’s. In 2007, she was moved to Louisiana to live with her son Terry when she could no longer live alone. There she enjoyed her days with a special care companion, Angel Mcleod. Even with advancing Alzheimer’s, Phyllis’s bubblie personality brightened the day of those she met up with each day. As Angel would many times say with a knowing grin “Come on, Ms Phyllis, let’s go find us some victim’s.” Because Phyllis would fuss over all the babies and exchange silly smiles, expressions and conversations with anyone she took a fancy too, (especially if they were as short as she was.) But with Alzheimers, once the sun started going down so did her emotional switch, one of the hardest thing for family and friends to deal with. In November 2011, after her son Terry’s heart operation, she was moved back to Clinton to live with another son, Charles Ray, (she was in the later stages of Alzheimers). Charles and his girlfriend Sally Jo cared for Phyllis in their home. On Saturday June 14th, Charles decided to bring his mother with him on a day of fishing with his son Eddy and 2 grandchildren. While they were fishing in the boat ,wind and waves capsized the boat. Eddy was unable to maintain a hold on both his young children and Phyllis’s life preservers. Both Phyllis and her son Charles perished.

Phyllis Selser

August 9, 1928 - June 14, 2014