Ruth Elizabeth Phillips, 78, Russell, formerly of Amherst, died Friday, July 24, 2009, at Salina Regional Hospital.

She was born Nov. 19, 1930, in the Amherst community to Rudy and Thelma (Wyckoff) Motzner. She graduated from Waldo High School.

She married Kenneth Phillips on Dec. 9, 1948, in Woodston. She was a dispatcher for the Russell County Sheriff's Department from 1974 through the late-1990s.

Survivors include her husband, of the home; a son, Paul Phillips, Russell; two daughters, Carla Batt, Victoria, and Elizabeth Langdon, DeSoto; six grandchildren; three step-grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

Services will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Otterbein United Methodist Church, Russell; burial in Amherst Cemetery, south of Waldo.

Visitation will be until 8 p.m. today, with family present from 6 to 7 p.m. at Pohlman-Varner-Peeler Mortuary, Russell.

Memorials are suggested to Otterbein United Methodist Church in care of the mortuary.