Rebecca Phillips Graeber

Published 2:53 pm Friday, May 20, 2022

Rebecca Phillips Graeber, 92, died May 19 at the Magnolia in Oxford, MS.

There will be a graveside service on Sunday, May 22 at 3:00 P.M. at Marks Cemetery with Rev. Eddie Rester officiating.  Waller Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Mrs. Graeber was born November 11, 1929, to Helen and Wardie Phillips in Pine Bluff, AR.  She attended Lindenwood College for 1 year before transferring to The University of Arkansas.  She was a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority and was a University of Arkansas beauty in 1948.  In 1953, she married her husband of 60 years, Henry Grafton Graeber who preceded her in death in 2013.  Becky enjoyed musical hobbies of singing, teaching and playing the accordion and piano.  Bub and Becky were known as beautiful dancers at every function they attended.  Becky was a gourmet chef, an accomplished hostess, an avid tennis player and sportswoman, an excellent shot and skilled hunter who shot AR-15’s for target practice into her late 80s in Texas with good friends.  Becky and her husband travelled the world with their friends and family members especially enjoying beaches, luxury air and train travel, cruising and their favorite city, London.

Becky grew up with 3 older siblings, W.W. Phillips, Jr., E. T. Phillips, and Martha Jane Shaw who all preceded her in death.

Mrs. Graeber is survived by her only child, Helen Graeber Overstreet of Oxford, MS, three grandchildren, Rob Cornelius of Oregon, Rebecca (Derek) Cornelius of Oxford, and Ruth (Josh) Buss of Wisconsin and great-grandchildren Ames, Evelyn Kate, Vaiden and Caleb.

Memorials may be made to Oxford University United Methodist Church, 424 S. 10^th Street, Oxford, MS 38655.