David Olson

Sylvia F. Rhinehart Phillips passed away along with her husband Ron, and 11 month old baby boy David Anthony Phillips April 1996; outside of Dillon, MT from a tragic vehicle accident. Most do not know the details, as is better not to. But they were all victims to careless driving by a semi tractor trailer.  Sylvia was 24.  It is true that many classmates didn't really know Sylvia as she was a marvelous spirited person, friend & mother; but extremely private.  She did in fact admire so many of her classmates up until her untimely death.  Sylvia and I had a very special friendship through HS, and afterwards.  We got to watch each other's lives & selves "grow".  I was one of the fortunate people who knew her, her immediate family/relatives/siblings very well.  Sylvia was someone who was filled with more talents in just her pinky finger than most of us have in our entire being.  She loved singing, acting, writing, and studying her "spirituality & Faith" with her Lord Jesus Christ.  In the years that I shared with Sylvia as one of her best friends, and even in her last few years in creating a home/family/and a strong marriage were some of the most precious years of my life.  I still miss her no doubt, as do the various selected that were privileged to be close to her.  Although exactly 14 years have passed since she left this Earth, it's hard to believe, some of her messages that Sylvia taught me still remains.  "Live life rightly, and true as best as you can!  Because what you do in this life, you WILL have to answer for. Pay attention, and love.  But Most importantly, Laugh!"  How wise she was before her time.  Now, if all of us could honestly do that and not get all jumbled with the insanities or indigenous shallowness of our worlds....ha ha.  Maybe one day.  Thanks to my friend and influence Mrs. Sylvia F. Rhinehart Phillips, for all she gave me that no money could buy.  It was an honor to be her son's Godfather.  Let us remember how fleeting, how small, yet how powerful we all could be to one another through our fellow classmate and friend Sylvia.

Misty Bissonette (Rogers)

I moved to Helena when I was 12 and attended school with Sylvia for a year. I was unknown and didn't have nice clothes or anything and so alot of kids made fun of me.  Sylvia was one friend that I made that year, and she was always so kind and self less. I had no idea that she had passed until today, and with her family too... such a tragedy! I know that her husband must have been as amazing as she was, heaven gained 3 angels that day!