In Celebration of the Life of Phyllis Helen Bilstad Oblander May 1, 1925 ~ July 2, 2022 Phyllis Helen Bilstad Oblander, age 97, died peacefully in her home in Atlanta, Georgia on July 2, 2022 Born May 1, 1925 on a farm in Callender, Iowa, Phyllis was the third of seven children born to Alfred and Helen (Becker) Bilstad. Family was always at the center of Phyllis’s life, beginning with her German and Norwegian relatives. Phyllis loved singing and grew up singing at church and local events with her sisters. She was very athletic and played in a competitive high school basketball league. Phyllis was also strong willed and determined. She graduated from Callender High School in three years and went on to earn a B.S. in Early Childhood Development at Iowa State University, also in three years. Phyllis worked for a living after graduation, living in Chicago, Illinois, with her sisters and later took a job demonstrating how to bake with an electric oven with Wisconsin Power and Light in Monroe, Wisconsin. It was in Monroe that Phyllis met “the Coke Man”, Joe M. Oblander, from Freeport, Illinois, and they were married on April 22, 1951. They were married sixty-one years until Joe’s death in July 2012. Phyllis was artistic and had a beautiful sense of color and design in her home and in her clothes. She had great attention to detail.
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