George Willis Phillips was the youngest child of James Edmond and Margaret Francis Gable Phillips. He always went by the name of Willis. He had four sisters and one brother. He was two years old when his sister Margenia Phillips died at the age of 5 years 10 months. His only brother, H. Dennis Phillips died at the age of 25. He was very close to his remaining sisters, Tellie Louvean, Vinnie, and Maude Estelle.

Willis was raised in Winston County, AL and at the age of 16 went to Marion County, AL and worked in the saw mills in the Pearces Mills area. There he met Dora Elizabeth Franks. They married April 10, 1912, two months before his 17th birthday. Willis and Dora moved to Winston County for a short time. Dora missed her family and went back to Marion County and Willis followed.

The first few years of marriage were very hard for Willis and Dora. Willis worked as a farm hand in the growing season and at the saw mills in the winter.

Willis and Dora had twelve children. Their first born child, Gennie Mae, died the month before her 5th birthday. Their 2nd child, an infant daughter, died at birth. Their sixth child, John Franklin Phillips died when he was only three weeks old. They raised the remaining nine children to be kind, loving adults. They lost a son, Thomas Leonard Phillips in 1945 when he gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country in World War II.

In the 1940's, Willis bought a 40 acre farm in the Pea Ridge Commmunity and farmed it until his health declined. He had a house for his wife and children, barn for his cow and mules, a storm house for protection from tornadoes, a feed house which stored food for his animals, a smoke house where he smoked hams for the winter, and a tool shed where he made horseshoes for his mules. He slowly replaced the kerosene lanterns with electric lights, the ice box with a refrigerator, the spring well house with indoor running water, the out-house with a bathroom, the mules with a tractor. In the 1950's he added a telephone and television.

Willis loved Fa-So-La singing. He attended Freewater Freewill Baptist Church and read the bible. He also was a Master Mason and a member of Pearces Mills Lodge No. 669 of F. & A. M. of Alabama for many years. He attended the meetings in the upstairs of the old Freewater Freewill Baptist Church on County Highway 42 in the Pea Ridge Community.

Before his death, he had one grandson J. Lee Phillips, and one granddaughter, Renee Miller, who die a few hours after their births. He had one grandson and three granddaughters whom he loved dearly. He later had seven other grandchildren he never got to meet.

He died on September 11, 1957 at Hamilton Hospital in Hamilton, AL from heart failure.