Obituaries
Letizia Phillips Fled World War II for America, 1916-2011
Letizia Phillips came to Imperial Beach after fleeing fascist Italy and World War II.
Letizia Phillips' was born on Jan. 25, 1916 in Modena, Italy.
When she was six-years old, her parents divorced and she became adopted by the state.
Phillips’ and her parents left Italy when fascism began to take hold under the Dictator Benito Mussolini. They fled to Paris, France where they lived for two years before heading to America when she was nine-years-old.
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"Her desire, her biggest desire when she was a child, and a big dream that came true was that she wanted to come to America,” said her daughter Christine Phillips.
After crossing the Atlantic Ocean, Phillips was on a boat from Mexico that encountered heavy fog and wild waves that nearly sank the boat, her daughter said.
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“There were parrots that were there along with them that were speaking in Spanish,” Christine Phillips said.
“The parrots said in Spanish ‘Baby Jesus save us’ over and over and over as they were praying along with the people on the boat.”’
Christine said her mother told her God answered their prayers because a ship nearby saw the distraught passengers and rescued them, bringing the family to Coronado.
There she met met and married Iradell Phillips. The couple had a 19 year marriage before he passed away from a heart attack in 1965. Until then the couple owned Pete's Market in Coronado.
Before his death, Letizia and Iradell moved from Coronado to Imperial Beach to buy a home.
“My parents could not find any place to live there (Coronado), so they came to Imperial Beach where there where houses being built,” Christine said.
Phillips lived in the same house on Elm Avenue from 1948 until her death on Sept. 22 due to natural causes. She was 95.
She was a veterinary assistant at Foelschow’s Veterinary Hospital which later became Silver Strand Veterinary Hospital in Imperial Beach. Phillips retired in 1991.
Christine said she will always remember her mother as a great person.
“She’s one of the few extraordinary souls in this world.”
Phillips is survived by her daughter, Christine Phillips and son Bill Phillips.
