Phyllis Mae Stoltzfus

In Cedar Rapids, on July 26, 2025, Phyllis Mae Stoltzfus died at 81. Born on October 20, 1943 and raised among Cuban-American manners that never needed a speech. She grew up believing that showing up was the first craft. She closed books that had to be kind and accurate at once. A night audit stamp pad cleaned daily kept numbers from becoming tragedies. Colleagues still mention a night audit stamp pad cleaned daily. She and James married in 1970 and raised a daughter and two sons without needing an audience. After James's death in 2018, she held to quiet habits—coffee before dawn, a tended yard, a voice on the phone that still checked in. Neighbors remember a rake leaned against a shared fence after a storm. Mornings were her favorite shift at home. She died in Cedar Rapids, on streets that already knew her pace. The calendar still has a circle on payday. What remains is not a legend but a practice: showing up, keeping a promise, leaving a place better than you found it. Her life was the kind America is built from and too often forgets to name.