Carolyn Phillips was honored when the city held a reception at the Library on Friday prior to the Christmas Parade in which she’d serve as Grand Marshal. Besides awards she received from the Kiwanis Club, Mayor Gerald Hamms and council member Chiquita Caldwell also presented her with the Hammy Award for her years of contributions to the community.
Carolyn Reber was born in Auburn, PA, where she lived until she was 10. In 1947 her family moved to Pawhuska, OK. She received her Associate of Arts degree from Cottey College in Nevada, MO, before studying at Oklahoma State University where she degreed in teaching and home economics. She first worked for Kent State University as a 4-H agent and in home economics, ironically, in Winfield, KS.
Miss Reber came onto the Winnfield, LA, scene on her birthday, Feb. 1, 1962, where LSU hired her as a home economist. She described the two “Winnfields” at that time, as similar in size, population and attitude except that the one-N town had a university, St. John’s. She worked at the Cooperative Extension Service (later LSU Ag Center) for 34 years before retiring in 1993. She had become country agent upon the retirement of Cody Cummings. She also cited one outstanding fourth grade 4-Her, Karen Weeks (now Shirley), who she’d later hire as a 4-H agent.
After her arrival in Winnfield, Carolyn met Frank Phillips who had been a state trooper before going into road construction where he was a superintendent. They married and after their son Bolton came into the picture, Frank decided the roadwork kept him away from home too much so he quit and came to work for the Winnfield City Police until his death.
Carolyn wasn’t idle long following her 1993 retirement. After her unsuccessful bid for mayor against Deano Thornton and Max Kelley, winner Thornton asked her to serve as director of the Louisiana Political Hall of Fame (as well as Main Street manager and heading up Tourism and Community Development for the city). In 2002, the museum became funded by the state and she stayed on as manager, now with a new employer. Her total tenure there was 30 years.
Anything else? The Louisiana Forest Festival was launched in Winnfield around 1949 when the state provided a little funding for fairs & festivals. Held in conjunction with the Winn Parish Fair in September, it faded in the mid-1950s when the state money dried up. But in 1980, a group gathered in the Extension Office to bring it back. Phillips invested her time as they worked to gather support through businesses and forest industries as well as gathering information from other festivals how to better run events including the professional timber sports competitions.
She recalls how in the first year, local loggers who were skilled in their jobs arrived with confidence but “were blown out of the water by the professionals. That’s when we realized there’s major difference in sawing in the woods and sawing in competition.” Through study, inquiries and construction, they acquired the support and safety structures to conduct effective events and began to grow the local sawyer athletes who could make a showing at major events.
Then there were the Hog Dogs. As they looked for events to celebrate the 100th birthday of “Uncle” Earl K. Long, Claude L. O’Bryan proposed a Hog Dog baying trial since Long was an avid hog hunter. That didn’t seem to gain much traction with the committee, Phillips recalls, but when it came about in March each year, the crowd from across the country (and some world travelers) was amazing “and talk about bringing money into the parish.”
Now an elder at First Presbyterian Church, she has been an active member since she came to town in 1962.
If you add up all of those years, that’s a lot of time spent working to make this a quality community. Those years weren’t all consecutive. Many were concurrent but it’s still a lot of time. And that’s why Carolyn Reber Phillips was selected for the honor as Grand Marshal of the 2023 Winnfield Christmas Parade.
