Phil Meadors, 71, has gone home, leaving behind a circle of those who loved him.
What follows is written with love, by those who knew him best.
Born in 1944, Phil began a life that would touch many along the way.
Phil held deeply to the Catholic faith — and was, by all accounts, loved by those who knew him best.
Service is its own kind of love — quiet, steady, often unseen.
Phillip D. Meadors, 71 died Tuesday, September 15, 2015 at his home eleven months after his pancreatic cancer diagnosis. Funeral Mass will be at 10:00am Saturday, September 19, 2015 at St. Christina's Catholic Church, Parker. Burial will be at Black Hills National Cemetery, Sturgis. Scripture Service/Rosary will be at 7:00pm Friday evening at the church. Arrangements by Hofmeister Jones Funeral Home. Phillip Daniel Meadors was born on July 25, 1944 at Bakersfield, CA to Oral Meadors and Dorothy (Kreitman). He moved with his family to Tucson, AZ and in 1958 to Pierre, SD. After graduating from Riggs High School in 1963 at Pierre he enlisted in the US Army, served in the military police with the rank of Sergeant, serving a tour in Vietnam. On May 6, 1967 he was united in marriage to Mary Lou Metzinger at Pierre. He was honorably discharged in 1968 and returned to Pierre where he became a trooper in the South Dakota Highway Patrol, having been stationed in Parker until 1975. For the last 39 years, Phil owned, operated and drove over the road trucks for Johnson Feed, Inc., until his retirement in July 2014. Phil logged over 3.8 million miles accident free and was the South Dakota Trucking Association driver of the year in 2008. Grateful for having shared his life are his wife Mary Lou, Parker; 2 sons, Brett (Stacy) and their children, Bailey, Kaitlyn, Peyton, and Addison, of Hartford, Rob (Jacqui) and their children Halle, Claire, and Nora, of Sioux Falls; 2 daughters Samantha Meadors and her children, Zackery, Hannah, and Myah of Plano, TX, and Stephanie (Tom) Jacobson and their children, Kyle, Derek, Larkin, and Hanson of Jefferson, SD; a sister Onita Disieno, Bakersfield, CA; brother-in-law, Lynn (Jane) Metzinger, Pierre; sister-in-law, Sally Metzinger, Sioux Falls; sister-in-law Linda (Tim) Brooks, Laramie, WY; sister-in-law Wanda (Mel) White, Clancy, MT; sister-in-law Susan (John) Culberson, Custer, SD; sister-in-law, Joan (Greg) Baker, Pierre. He was preceded in death by his parents and an infant daughter. The family would ask that any memorials be directed to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (www.pancan.org) or St. Christina's Catholic Church.
