Phillip Mosley Bone

1947 - 2025

Phillip Mosley Bone Castalia - Phillip Mosley Bone went home to be with his Heavenly Father on January 19, 2025. No man who ever walked this earth could have been more loved and cherished than our dad, our friend, our most beloved family member. We have no doubts that he's celebrating with Jesus and that there is a reunion party that looks a lot like one of our famous Mosley family reunions-overflowing with laughter and warmth.

The youngest child of William Marvin and Linda Bell Mosley Bone and baby brother to Jean, Jewel, Raybon, and Bobby, Phil was born September 19, 1947, into a family who knew hardship but excelled at caring for each other and finding sparks of joy and silliness. This shaped his lifelong traits of optimism, positivity, and grit. Those, together with the most amazing work ethic, shaped a man who drove fast cars way too fast, was brave enough to take entrepreneurial risks, and dug in to learn new things very quickly without any feeling of intimidation.

On October 4, 1980, he married the woman he'd met on a field one weekend while skydiving, a favorite hobby (one that certainly required that famous optimism). He and his wife, Robin Williams Bone, then had two daughters, Abbie and Emily. Phil raised his girls with affection and love. He modeled what it looks like for a man to be strong, capable, and a devoted provider for his children plus tender, warm, and soft with a marshmallow heart. The girls learned honesty, work ethic, and how to roof a barn, split firewood, build fences, and plan an over-the-top garden at young ages.

To his friends, Phil was a man who showed up. Always with a smile. Always with a heart of generosity. Always giving his trust. Always with jokes. He valued people for their hearts and didn't discriminate, but bonus points if you laughed at the jokes. If you lunched with him every week or only saw him once per year, you still got the same warmth and loyalty, and an invitation to sit down and join him.

His calloused hands built barns and fixed most things, but they also made great lemon pies, diligently fed his wild birds homemade peanut butter mixtures, delicately maneuvered paint brushes, delivered baby horses, cradled lap cats, and planted flower gardens. He loved colorful flowers and trees. He was always busy-just quietly getting things done without seeking praise, even when those things were hard. That's just who he was.

The family requests that friends and family please plant something in his honor in their own gardens or a special place in lieu of sending flowers. He would have been hugely moved to know that people might plant beautiful trees or flowers to remember him by. He never could walk past a Japanese maple or flower of any kind on sale without buying it.

The family will host a memorial service at his beloved Fellowship Church, 1114 S. 1st Street, Nashville, NC on Saturday, January 25 at 10:30 a.m. Friends will be received immediately following the service.

Services arranged by Davis-Little Funerals, Rocky Mount, NC.