Mar 3, 2021
Phyllis Rose Ward was born February 22, 1932 in Bronx, NY, and grew up in Flushing, Queens. Born with a then-inoperable heart defect, Phyllis was not expected to live past her sixth birthday, was not expected to have a perfect attendance record through eight years of Saint Kevin’s Catholic Elementary school, and was not expected to graduate from Bayside High School in 1950. She was awarded a Bachelor’s degree from Queens College, and married Bayside High classmate Jeremiah Patrick McAward in 1954.
Because of her heart defect, Phyllis was warned against having children. While having a reputation as a good listener, Phyllis chose not to listen to the doctors, and had children anyway: Jeremiah Patrick McAward Jr., Mary Jeanne McAward, and James Gerard McAward. She and her young family relocated to Huntington, NY in 1960, when moving to the suburbs was what brave pioneers did. Phyllis learned to drive a car at the age of 30, and for the next 58 years was reticent about making left turns against traffic; thus the lives of her young children were defined by all the places which one could go by making only right turns.