Biography

Photographer and Santa Barbaran Marie Phillis was active from the 1930s through the 1970s. Phillis lived at 21 W Valerio, Santa Barbara. The 1960 City Director indicates Mrs. L. Marie Phillis was a PBX operator for SB General Hospital. From the 1950 City Directory; the L. is for Luella and that she is the widow of J. D. From the 1931 and 1940 City Directories; husband Joseph D. was a Fire Marshall for the SBFD. Joseph Danforth Phillis's obituary is in scrapbook 18A-198.

Marie Phillis was a member of the Channel City Camera Club in the 1940s, entering her prints in contests, winning multiple times. She used Leica cameras and lenses.

Allen Wellman acquired the photographic enlargements at an estate sale. When Allen passed away, his brother Paul Wellman inherited them.

When Phillis began taking color transparencies, she shared 35mm slides with Vesta Flexman, in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. When Vesta died, the slides were sent to Shannon Foredyce's grandfather, Vesta's brother, Earl Carefoot, in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. When Foredyce's grandfather died, the slides were sent to her mother, Earl's daugther, Marilynn Snyder, in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Foredyce inherited the shared slide collection from her mother.

According to Foredyce, there are many flower images among the transparencies because Phillis was a prolific gardener. There are also slides of the harbor, landscapes, and other places she visited. There is a small box of the Santa Barbara Coyote Fire of September 22-October 1, 1964. Phillis had a numbering system used by Foredyce to put them in number order and into the slide boxes that work with a projector.

Found in 2 Collections and/or Records: