Phyllis Jean Downing Services for Phyllis Jean Downing will be held Friday, March 12, 2010 at 2:00 P. M at Robert Barham Family Funeral Home with Reverend Ralph Henson officiating. Burial will be in Battleground cemetery in Battleground, IN with Robert Barham Family Funeral Home in charge of local arrangements and Hahn-Groeber Funeral Home in Indiana. Mrs. Downing, 74, of Meridian died Tuesday March 9, 2010 at Fisher House. Phyllis was born March 11, 1935 in Marion Indiana to Francis and Naomi McLain Shaver. She moved to Fairmont, Indiana where she lived with Stanley and Lenore Kesler and sister Judy. She became a registered nurse and worked at Saint Elizabeth Hospital in Lafayette, Indiana where she met her future husband William Downing. She married the love of her life, Bill, in 1957. She was a wonderful wife and mother. She moved to Meridian and worked at St. Joseph Hospital and Riley Hospital. She lived out her later years at the Fisher House and was in Southern Care Hospice. She is survived by her children, Diana Van Buren and her husband, Charles of Byram, MS, Dr. Deborah Schultz and her husband, Carl, William Jay Downing of Meridian and Janine Graves and her husband Paul of Enterprise, MS. Grandchildren, Jessica Graves, Justin Graves, Jayden Graves, Jayden Graves, and Angel Graves, of Enterprise, Catherine Van Buren of Byram, MS , Andrea Downing, David Shultz and Sarah Shultz of Meridian and several nieces and nephews. Sisters, Judith Kneipple, Leesburg, FL, Polly Martin, Chandler, TX, Florence Irvin, brothers Joe Shaver, Marion, In, and John Shaver, of Dallas. She was preceded in death by her husband, Bill, infant son, John Matthew, Mother and father, Francis and Naomi Shaver, foster mother and father, Stanley and Lenora Kesler, brothers, Jim, Glenn and Jerry Shaver, sister Janet Bingle. Visitation will be Friday 12:00 until service at the funeral home.
