Phyllis L. Knight

Phyllis L. Knight died at age 91 on June 13, 2022. She was born May 15, 1931 in South Royalton, Vermont. She was the daughter of Edward Llewellyn Knight and Elsie Mary Beaton Knight.

Phyllis graduated from South Royalton High School and the University of Vermont. She attended graduate school in Bologna, Italy and taught at a U.S. Air Force base in Japan during the 1960s, where she met her future husband. She lived for many years in Silver Spring, Maryland and taught in Montgomery County public schools. She volunteered as a docent with the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., and was active in neighborhood and civic projects. She had a vibrant intellectual curiosity about the arts, history, and traveling. Whether reading a book or visiting museums, historic homes, and gardens, she soaked up knowledge to share with others. She appreciated all of the vacations shared with family at the cottage in York Beach, Maine.

She moved to Salem, Massachusetts a few years before her death. She died in June 2022 at Kaplan Family Hospice House in Danvers. The burial service attended by family and friends was held on July 13, 2022 at Riverview Cemetery in South Royalton, Vermont. Murphy Funeral Home and Boardway & Cilley Funeral Home were entrusted with the arrangements.

Family members include her sisters Mary I. Knight and Ann H. Knight; three nieces and one nephew; one grandniece and one grandnephew; one great-grand-nephew; and her former spouse Clayton Cochran.

Phyllis’s loved ones find solace in memories of evening strolls with her on Long Sands Beach, Maine, where she paused to greet every person – and every dog – that she encountered.