Phillip Lane Rhodes
Phillip Lane Rhodes, 72, of Wolf Lake, died Friday morning, May 6, 2022, at home, with his children by his side, listening to music and surrounded in love.
He was born on Jan. 25, 1950, the son of Geneva Mildred Bridgeman Rhodes and Ray Thomas Rhodes of Wolf Lake.
He married Belinda Lu Stage of Vanduser, Mo., on Oct. 11, 1974, at Beech Grove Baptist Church in rural Alto Pass.
Lane and Lu started their life together living near the family farm in a rental house from Merle and Ida May Smith – it was a tiny yellow house they would fondly refer to as “The Little House on the Prairie.” They began raising their first two children (Stephanie and Kevin) there.
When they outgrew the little house on the prairie, they built their forever home on the Rhodes Farm and welcomed their third child, Felicia, in the summer of 1979.
He is survived by his children, Stephanie Rhodes of Alto Pass, Kevin (Darson) Rhodes of Hamlin, N.Y., and Felicia (Jason) Gale of Keokuk, Iowa; four grandchildren, Toby (Kenzle) Gale of Montrose, Iowa, Molly Gale of Keokuk, Iowa, Tyus and Jonas Rhodes of Hamlin, N.Y.; and one great-grandchild, Kaesen Lane Gale of Montrose, Iowa; siblings Dale (Joann) Rhodes of Ziegler and Sherry Rendleman of Wolf Lake; a special friend and bonus mom, Ida May Smith of Anna; nieces and nephews; other family and special neighbors and friends.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Belinda Lu; his parents, Ray and Geneva; a sister, Beverly; and a brother in-law Gary Rendleman.
Mr. Rhodes was a member of Beech Grove Baptist Church and enjoyed supporting the Anna Heights Baptist Church Sunday School class at the Illinois Veterans Home in Anna. He and Lu held Sunday school and song services there for 23 years, making friends there to many veterans and their families.
Community members, friends and family remember Lane as a local basketball star at Shawnee High School in Wolf Lake, a proud serviceman in Vietnam, a Sunday School teacher at Beech Grove Baptist, a ministry leader at the Illinois Veterans Home in Anna, a regular song performer at community events and churches and not the least of which was a long-time farmer of the creek bottom ground of Clear Creek.
Above all, friends and family knew Lane as a kind-hearted, compassionate, strong, patient, generous and hard-working man who always had time to “shoot-the-breeze” with neighbors and strangers alike. He loved his late and recently passed wife, Lu, as deeply as one could love another.
Funeral services were at 2 p.m. Monday, May 9, at Rendleman & Hileman Funeral Home in Anna, with Bill Littrell officiating.
Interment was in the Jonesboro Cemetery. Graveside military honors were conducted by Carroll P. Foster Post No. 3455 of the VFW in Anna and the Illinois Army National Guard funeral honor team of Marion.
Memorials can be made to the activity fund at the Illinois Veterans Home in Anna or to the Beech Grove Church Cemetery Fund.
To view the obituary and to leave online condolences for the family, visit www.rendlemanhilemanfh.com.
Rendleman & Hileman Funeral Home in Anna was in charge of arrangements.