Phyllis's obituary
Phyllis Eileen Burdett Dikes
(1927-2022)
Phyllis Eileen Burdett Dikes was born on September 10, 1927, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, to parents, Thomas Burdett and Edith Victoria Hagglund Burdett. In 1944, she graduated at age 16 from Burnaby South High School in British Columbia. In 1946, she completed Normal school and became an elementary school teacher at age 19 in Surrey, B.C. and then on Vancouver Island. In 1949, Phyllis came to the United States to attend Pasadena College in California. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and a Minor in Biology in 1951 and taught for three years in Puente, California, before moving to Spokane, Washington, to teach first grade at Wilson Elementary on the South Hill. In 1957, she got married and had four children. She was a full-time homemaker while her children were young and was very active at the Spokane Valley Church of the Nazarene. In 1975, the family moved to Phoenix, Arizona, and Phyllis worked in a variety of positions to help support the family. In 1987, Phyllis got divorced and moved to San Diego to work in the Records Office at Point Loma Nazarene University. She returned to Spokane after she retired in 1998. She loved her family and friends, traveling to England and Europe, and serving God. In her last several years, she suffered from strokes and dementia. A month after turning 95, Phyllis passed away on Saturday, October 15, 2022, at Sunshine Health and Rehabilitation skilled nursing facility surrounded by two of her daughters and one of her granddaughters. She was predeceased by her parents, her sister Doris Herbert, and her son Robert Dikes. She is survived by her three daughters Joni Baxter, Patti Dikes, and Lori Mayne Brody, four granddaughters Summer Mayne, Morgan Withers, Hayley Mayne, and Sarah Baxter, sons-in-law Gordon Baxter and Dave Brody, her sister-in-law Lois Dikes Soper, and her beloved nieces and nephews, Canadian and English cousins, and their families. Her loved ones will never forget her and the life she lived loving them and the world around her.