Phyllis Ruby Cohen

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Phyllis Ruby Cohen. Her father died weeks before Pearl Harbor and before World War II ended, Phyllis Ruby Cohen joined the Navy as a WAVE to represent her family. This commitment to service remained a point of pride to her death on March 22, 2002 when Ms. Cohen died of cancer at the North Residence Hospice. She was 77 (DOB 2/27/25). Ms. Cohen was born in Chicago and adopted immediately by Hilda Marie Anderson and her husband, Simon H. Cohen. Phyllis was raised in South Minneapolis and graduated from West High School in 1943. Ms. Cohen completed a course in bookkeeping at Minneapolis Business College and was working for Roberts-Hamilton Plumbing Co. on Washington Ave. when, finally, with her widowed mother's consent, she joined the Navy in April, 1945. Ms. Cohen was stationed in Washington, D.C., as a yeoman 3rd class working in communications. She was discharged in August, 1946, and joined Honeywell in 1949, retiring in 1985. She began as a secretary to a foreman, hoping to become a supervisor in the era before women were promoted to such jobs. Twenty years later, she won an assistant supervisor's job in PCI Product Control. Over the decades, she was a volunteer at Ebenezer Luther Hall, the Neighbor to Neighbor (N2N) program, the Special Olympics, and the Honeybelles where she rose to president. She served on the West Metro Transportation Advisers Council and belonged to WAVES Unit 37 where she edited the bimonthly Blue Jacket newsletter. Later, she was active in the Honeywell Retiree Volunteer Program (HRVP), becoming a manager on the staff. Phyllis led the effort for the MN Food Share and United Way programs from Honeywell retirees, and also was active in sending greeting cards to retirees in nursing homes. In 1994, WCCO honored her as a `good neighbor.' When a monument was dedicated in 1994 at Fort Snelling National Cemetery to women who served in the Navy, Ms. Cohen participated in the ceremony. The spring, 2001, Neighbor to Neighbor newsletter likened Ms. Cohen to the Energizer Bunny who was active in the group when it still was called the Good Neighbor Foundation and never stopped helping. In part, the newsletter said, she brought computer skills to the White Bear Lake office and served on the agency's board of directors. `I volunteer because it gives me a good feeling to be needed,' she told the N2N newsletter. Ms. Cohen was preceded in death by her sister, Pat Flowers. She is survived by her daughter, Bonnie Kaufman, formerly of Minneapolis and now of Moorpark, CA; a grandson, Jason K. Averill, of Cincinnati, Ohio; a nephew, Jim Flowers, of Chicago, IL; and a niece, Mary Coleman, of DeKalb, IL. The memorial service will be 11 a.m. on Saturday, April 6, 2002 at the Cremation Society of Minnesota, 7110 France Ave., South in Edina. Interment is to be at Ft. Snelling National Cemetery. The family extends special thanks to the staff of North Residence Hospice and requests memorials be directed to the Hospice as well as to Neighbor to Neighbor & Ebenezer Luther Hall.

Published on March 31, 2002