Phyllis Elaine Ballinger

1935 - 2023

Phyllis Elaine Ballinger
Reed City, MI
March 2, 1935 - November 22, 2023
Phyllis Elaine (Cooley) Ballinger passed away on Wednesday, November 22, 2023, at Reed City Fields Assisted Living and Memory Care in Reed City, Michigan. She was 88 years old.
Phyllis was born in Brighton, Michigan on March 2, 1935 to Wallace R. and Esther Catherine (Burns) Cooley of Livingston County, Michigan. Phyllis was the youngest of 10 children (siblings Winifred, Anna, Hilda, Helen, Josephine, Dorothy, Jesse, Arthur, and Lavern).
Phyllis was raised on a farm in Brighton, Michigan. She met her classmate and future husband, Gene Curtis Ballinger, the day they registered for their senior year at Brighton High School where they graduated together in 1953. Phyllis and Gene were wed on November 14, 1953, in Ayer, Massachusetts, just before Gene left with his Army unit for Korea and remained together until his death in Hatch, New Mexico in 1999. Phyllis had a 40-year career in secretarial positions, most of which were in newspaper offices doing typesetting and billing.
Phyllis is survived by her daughters Vicki Ballinger, of Big Rapids, Michigan and Belinda (Robert) Bryan of Fairborn, Ohio. She has three grandchildren: Angela (Jose) Martinez of Deming, New Mexico, Anthony (Allison) Mariani of Culver City, California and Jacob Rivera of Big Rapids, Michigan. She also leaves three great-grandchildren: Marina Martinez and Jose Martinez of Deming, New Mexico, and Zachary Mariani of Culver City, California.
She was preceded in death by a daughter, Lucinda Faye Ballinger (stillborn); a granddaughter, Jennifer Leah Hopkins; and the nine older brothers and sisters.
The family will hold a private memorial in New Mexico sometime next year so she can join her husband, Gene, forever more in the Gila Wilderness.