Background
Phillips was born to William T. Phillips and the former Ollie Fare in the village of Kossuth near Corinth, the seat of Alcorn County in the northeastern corner of the state. He graduated in 1943 from Alcorn Agricultural High School in Kossuth. Thereafter, he enlisted in the United States Navy in which he served for four years in the Pacific Theatre of World War II and, then, with the post-war occupation. Phillips also retained a commission in the Navy Reserve, from which he retired at the rank of commander in 1963.
He graduated, first, from Millsaps College, a United Methodist liberal arts institution in Jackson, Mississippi, and, then, the University of Mississippi School of Law in Oxford. In 1956, Phillips was named an "Outstanding Alumnus" of Millsaps College. In 1959, he and later Lieutenant Governor Charles L. Sullivan were named among the "Outstanding Young Men of the Year" by the Mississippi Jaycees. He was formerly active in Kiwanis International.
In 1958, he entered the private practice of law in Jackson with the firm Overstreet, Kuykendall, Perry and Phillips. He was subsequently a senior partner in the reorganized firm, Perry, Phillips, Crockett and Morrison. From 1979 until 1990, Phillips was retained as a consultant and attorney for Mobile Communications Corporation of America, later MobileComm, a subsidiary of BellSouth. In 1993, he was accepted into the Master of Laws program at Cambridge University's Downing College in Cambridge, England.
Formerly a member of the First Baptist Church of Jackson, Mississippi, Phillips later was among five founding members of Northminster Baptist Church, where he was the first chairman of the deacon board and taught the men's Sunday School class. He was a fundraiser for his alma mater, Millsaps College and the St. Andrew's Episcopal School, also located in Jackson.
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