Lily Ann Phillips; Retired Guest Ranch Host

Lily Ann Phillips, retired host of a guest ranch and Ventura County native, died at the Santa Paula Healthcare Center. She was 110.

Born Lily Ann McIntyre on Dec. 14, 1888, Phillips spent her childhood with her four sisters and a brother on the family apiary, bordering the Sespe River in Ventura County. The family moved to the city of Ventura and lived in the first concrete block house, built by her grandfather, on Plaza Street.

She graduated from Ventura High School in 1909 and went to Los Angeles to become a teacher.

Phillips moved to Douglas, Ariz., and then to El Paso, where she met her husband-to-be, Michael James Phillips, a member of the Michigan National Guard. The guard was deployed to El Paso to chase Pancho Villa back across the border to Mexico. The couple was married in 1916.

They moved to Owosso, Mich., but returned to California in 1919. The Phillipses lived in Santa Barbara, where Michael worked for the Santa Barbara Daily Press. In the mid-1920s, they moved to Pasadena, while he worked for Saturday Evening Post magazine.

In 1937 and for the next 42 years, Phillips was a host at the Sagehens Guest Ranch in Victorville. Her sister, Iris Newby, was co-host of the ranch. Phillips was credited with making many improvements to the ranch and thereby increasing the number of guests. Phillips’ daughter, Harriet Murphy of Oak Lawn, Ill., said an auditor once told her mother the business was operating in the red. She replied, “This is not a business, it’s a way of life,” Murphy recalled.

Phillips retired in 1979 and moved with her sister to Ventura. She moved to Santa Paula at age 98, when it became difficult for her to walk.

Phillips was preceded in death by her husband Michael and son John.

In addition to her daughter, she is survived by a daughter, Helen W. Brennan of Arcadia; 11 grandchildren, and 19 great-grandchildren.

Private services will be held for Phillips.

Arrangements are under the direction of the Joseph P. Reardon Funeral Home in Ventura.