Walter Asbury Phillips

Walter Phillips was born in 1892 in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. Situated in the Atchafalaya Basin, the region is at the center of historically important creole and Cajun cultures. His father owned a plantation in Barbreck. After studying a few years at near-by Ruston Industrial Institute (now Louisiana Tech University), Phillips enrolled at LSU in 1910. A family tragedy cut his college career short in 1913 when he was called home because of the murder of his father. He took on many responsibilities during this difficult time but nonetheless responded immediately to the call of patriotic duty when the U.S. entered Word War I in April 1917. He reported on May 8 for training at Ft. Logan H. Roots in Arkansas, where many of the original buildings remain, protected by their status of historical significance. After commissioning at Ft. Pike, Arkansas on August 17, he transferred to Ft. Dix in New Jersey and soon found himself at sea, headed for Liverpool, England. Quickly moving on to France, he began further military training at Pons, where he became ill after exposure to Spanish influenza. He was transferred to a military hospital at Talence, a suburb of Bordeaux on the western coast of France, where he died of pneumonia on November 10, 1917. His grave is in the Allied War Cemetery in Talence.

Years after his death, Walter Phillips’ sister remembered her brother in these loving words: “Bright, cheery, sunny disposition, absolute attention to duty, interested in the welfare of his men.”