Margaret Phillips

SARATOGA Margaret (Coffinger) Phillips, formerly of Saratoga Springs, died June 11, 2005 at The Landing in Queensbury. Born on January 17, 1918 in Schuylerville, N.Y., she was the daughter of the late Ernest Abram and Julia Agnes (Sinnott) Coffinger. Mrs. Phillips was a graduate of the Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospitals School of Nursing in NYC. She worked at Saratoga Hospital maternity unit from 1941 to 1945 and at the NYS Veterans Camp at Mt. McGregor in Wilton from 1947 to 1960. She retired from the Middletown State Hospital in 1974, where she worked since 1961. Mrs. Phillips was a founding member and first vice-president of the Pine Bush Ambulance Squad in Pine Bush, N.Y., a charter den mother of Cub Scout Pack 24 in Wilton and a member of Boy Scout Troop 24 Women's Auxiliary. An avid golfer, she enjoyed gardening, knitting and oil painting the area around her second home on the great Sacandaga Lake where the family summered since the early 1950s. She was married to the late Eugene E. Phillips on July 22, 1945 who passed away on September 15, 1995. In addition to her parents and husband, she was predeceased by one sister, Violet Green and two brothers, Paul and Ernest Coffinger. Survivors include two sons and daughters-in-law, Eugene E. (Cynthia) Phillips of Wilton and William E. (Joyce) Phillips of the town of Moreau; two sisters, Julia Ernst of Schuylerville and Anne Miner of Fla.; two sisters-in-law, Marian Coffinger of Salem and Mary Murray of Saratoga Springs; four grandchildren, William Phillips of Norfolk, Va., Jeffrey Phillips of Glens Falls, Keith Phillips of Malta and Katie Phillips of Clifton Park; four great-grandchildren, Jack, Matthew, Ethan and Benjamin Phillips; several nieces, nephews. Friends may call from 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the William J. Burke & Sons/Bussing & Cunniff Funeral Homes, 628 North Broadway (584-5373). Funeral services will be held at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at the United Methodist Church of Saratoga Springs, corner of Fifth Avenue and Henning Road. Burial will follow in St. Peter's Cemetery, West Ave. Memorials may be made in her name to High Peaks Hospice, Inc., 286 Glen St., Glens Falls, NY 12801 or to Wilton Emergency, Inc., 1 Harran Lane, Wilton, NY 12831.