Poet, CROP Walker and beloved local figure Dorothy Ann Phillips dies
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
Published: March 03, 2002
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula Times
9:19 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 28, 2002
One of the last acts of Dorothy Ann Phillips, social worker, teacher, poet and prodigious correspondent, was to send out hundreds of letters to her friends and supporters to urge them to again donate to Crop Walk, this year being held on March 10.
They all carried Dorothy Ann’s distinctive, careful notation of time and date that the missive was started, her delicate script forming letters written in several colors of ink, a cornucopia of underlines, stickers, affection and good wishes.
“. . .now, my dear, another year has rolled around to Crop Walk time, and 2002 is my 24th year,” Dorothy Ann wrote on 4 p.m. Monday, Feb. 18, 2002, “The President’s Day!” standing out in red ink.
“. . .I might not make 25 years, because of my failing health. . .my precious dear, do you any spare shekels to feed someone, somewhere? Money is not coming in as in the past,” she wrote, enclosing an essay about the impact of Sept. 11 donations on charities in general. Dorothy also enclosed numerous clippings of the recipient’s recent mentions in the press and a bookmark with a kitten; “Look at this Sweet Puss!” Dorothy Ann wrote on it.
Dorothy Ann died Feb. 25, 2002, alas, exact time unknown, one of the “Most remarkable and unforgettable persons I have ever known,” said her longtime friend Joyce Carlson. “I first met her about 30 years ago during a difficult time in her life; she was lonely and depressed following several years which she had actually experienced hunger.”
Shortly thereafter, the first Crop Walk - a walk against hunger in the world and Santa Paula - was organized, and Dorothy Ann (her first and middle names always coupled, while others preferred to call her Miss Phillips) found another cause with the encouragement of her friend Beth Spriggs. Within a few years she became known as Miss Crop Walker of Santa Paula, and over the years raised close to $100,000, a quarter of which was used to combat hunger in Santa Paula.
Carlson noted that perhaps equally important was what the Crop Walk gave Dorothy Ann: “. . .hundreds of friends who came to love her and be loved by her. She gained the self-esteem that had been lacking in her life, and became a truly happy person.”
Marianne Ratcliff was a favorite of Dorothy Ann’s and the affection was returned. Ratcliff wrote about Dorothy Ann and her devotion to the Crop Walk in a Ventura Star column about three years ago.
“Santa Paula woman demonstrates the power of the pen,” aptly described Dorothy Ann’s efforts on behalf of Crop Walk, as well as her wide correspondence and regular contributions of poetry to the Santa Paula Times. Her writing was perfectly organized with a special table and wall unit, cubbyholes overflowing with her particular writing supplies that made any missive from Dorothy Ann unforgettable. Dolls and stuffed animals stood at attention, keeping her company while she wrote.
“Dorothy Ann Phillips hasn’t been able to walk the CROP Walk route since
1984. Now the 83-year-old Santa Paula woman lets her fingers do the walking, writing hundreds of letters each year asking for contributions,” wrote Ratcliff.
Dorothy Ann reached a point where she had to be pushed in a wheelchair to make the Crop Walk, which she never missed. Deeply religious, Dorothy Ann said “I feel I’ve been an instrument in God’s hands to feed his children, because I’ve been there myself.”
Many are sending their contributions to Crop Walk in Dorothy Ann’s honor: they should be sent in care of Ruth Colbath, 817 E. Santa Paula St., Apt. C, Santa Paula, CA 93060.
10:23 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 28, 2002
