Phyllis Lovell Maley

Phyllis Lovell Maley, age 79, of Olathe, KS, passed away on January 28, 2026.

She is survived by her children Christopher Maley (LeeAnn) and Melissa Schafer (Jeremy); and grandchildren Jackson and Mimi Zinn of Olathe, KS, Alex Maley of Mt. Juliet, TN, and stepgrandchildren Emma and Kate Schafer of Olathe, KS. Also surviving are sister Suzanne Hall, Montclair, NJ, and brother George Lovell, Columbia, TN.

She was born Mary Phyllis Lovell, on August 28, 1946 in Columbia, TN. She was the middle child of Ernest Brown Lovell and Emma Pauline (Polly) Lovell. She was bookended by her siblings, Suzanne (Suzy) Lovell Hall and George (Buzz) Lovell. Her younger brother was nicknamed “Buzz” due to Phyllis’s mispronunciation of “brother” when he was born, and he is known as Buzz to his friends and family to this day. Phyllis was always close with her siblings. Suzy considered her little sister to be her best friend and flew out from NJ to stay with Phyllis during her final week.

Phyllis, with her parents, and siblings, spent the early years of her childhood living in her maternal grandparents’ farmhouse. She recalled a natural spring in the front of the property where every year “gypsies” would camp as they traveled through the region. She remembered her grandfather sitting up all night on the front porch on those days, protecting the family. Phyllis’s lifelong fear of birds was born on her grandfather’s farm when she, as a small child, ran into the chicken coop, thinking her father was there, only to be rushed by the chickens.

As a child and through adulthood, Phyllis was known for being discerning about her appearance. Suzy recalls that her sister was very particular about her hair ribbons as a child. It had to be the “right” ribbon or she wasn’t having it. Much later in life, she was still known for wearing perfectly styled clothes. Her granddaughter, Mimi, admiring her grandmother at five years old, noted that her grandmother’s style was always “extra.”

During her teenage years, Phyllis was known as “Bunny” and this was when her love of music began. Buzz recalled riding in the car with her when she had just gotten her driver’s license and, just before she turned the ignition off in their driveway, the first Beatles song he had ever heard came on the radio. They sat in the car, mesmerized until the last chord. Phyllis loved music and dancing, telling her daughter that her dream as a teenager was to go to New York City and dance to Chubby Checker at Dick Clark’s American Bandstand.

Phyllis grew up before the advent of desegregation in the South, never attending an integrated school. She remembered her confusion as a child that a dear friend would not be allowed to attend the same school as her for kindergarten. She also recalled the sound of tanks rolling past her and her husband, Bruce’s, apartment in Memphis, TN, during the Sanitation Workers’ Strike, a landmark Civil Rights event.

She met her husband, Bruce Maley, during her sophomore year at the University of Tennessee. After they married in 1966, she left college to support his dream of becoming a doctor. She often recalled that one of her favorite jobs during that period was working as a telephone switchboard operator at the Bell South Telephone Company. They lived in Knoxville, Memphis, and Philadelphia while Bruce finished college, medical school, and residency. She gave birth to their son, Chris, in Philadelphia. They then moved to Millington, TN, where Bruce worked at the Naval Hospital and Phyllis gave birth to their daughter, Melissa. A few years later, they settled in Jackson, TN, where they lived, raised their children, and worked until retirement.

Phyllis was a stay-at-home mother for many years, providing a home full of love and good, made-from-scratch food at every meal, including favorites such as creme-de-menthe brownies every Christmas and baking soda biscuits on Saturday mornings. She loved reading to her children and creating a home that was a hub of neighborhood children’s activity. She was an avid gardener, relishing flipping through the seed catalogs that would show up in the mail every winter. She would spend her evenings watching Masterpiece Theater or Mystery! on PBS while sewing cross-stitch, creating large masterpieces that sometimes would take months to complete, including a cross-stitch portrait of their home. Every Halloween she sewed costumes for her children, making sure they looked exactly like whatever they could imagine. She was her children’s biggest champion, ferrying them to baseball and piano practices in the family station wagon during the day and spending evenings at the kitchen table helping them with homework.

When her children were in high school, she went back to college and finished her degree in Accounting. She then worked for a CPA firm before sharing with a friend that her dream was to work for a nonprofit. After this conversation, she was invited to apply for the Business Manager position at her church, First United Methodist Church. She flourished in this position, where she was known for her composure, attention to detail, and joyful energy.

She loved being a grandmother. When they were children, she attended Alex’s sporting events and got down on the floor with Jackson and Mimi to read or play with trains and dolls. As they grew older, Phyllis coordinated her trips back to TN to see Alex play sports. She took Melissa’s children on senior trips when they graduated from high school: Jackson to Philadelphia and Mimi to New Orleans. When Melissa married Jeremy, Phyllis became a fixture at holiday events with his family and relished spending time with them and her step-granddaughters, Emma and Kate.

In 2015, after she and Bruce retired, they moved to Columbia, TN. They lived there for many happy years, alongside her siblings and their spouses. The six of them would have weekly dinners together at a local Mexican restaurant, where they were regulars every Wednesday night.

In December 2018, her daughter Melissa's first husband suddenly passed away. Soon after in April 2019, Phyllis’s husband, Bruce, died after a long illness. Shortly after these losses, she moved to Lawrence, KS, to live with and help her daughter and grandchildren. When Melissa remarried in 2023, Phyllis moved into her own home down the driveway from Melissa and Jeremy on their property in Olathe, KS. There, she lived independently for the first time. She thrived in this last chapter of her life, joining Grace United Methodist Church, making new friendships, and finding love again with Sam Bartee. She and Sam traveled extensively in the U.S. during the last months of her life, sharing a mutual love of good food, music, fellowship, and new experiences.

She was first hospitalized on December 28, 2025, due to what was eventually diagnosed as amyloidosis, a rare blood disorder. One month later, on January 28, 2026, she passed away after a rapid progression of illness.

A memorial service will be held at Penwell-Gabel Funeral Home in Olathe, KS, on February 6, 2026. A graveside service and interment will be held later in the year in Columbia, TN. Arrangements will be made by Oakes and Nichols Funeral Home.

Memorial contributions in memory of Phyllis may be made to St. Judes.