Phyllis Rorick passed away peacefully on December 22, surrounded by family at Adams Woodcrest Assisted Living. She was born on June 9, 1935, to Raymond and Mary Braun. A lifelong resident of Decatur, IN, her 90 years held the greatest joys and trials life can bring.
Phyllis’ childhood was spent bustling around the family farm with her siblings. A graduate of Decatur Catholic High School in 1953, she worked at Central Soya and married Norman Rorick on April 12, 1958. Their 68 years together were rooted in their shared Catholic faith and ever-growing family.
A parishioner of St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church, Phyllis was a Eucharistic minister to the homebound, a lector for her church, and a volunteer in the candy room at St. Joseph’s Catholic School when her children were young. She was respected and beloved for her dedication to those around her and her deep relationship with God. A kind and caring person, she exemplified her faith each day in the little ways that have the longest impact in the lives of others.
Phyllis treasured her time spent being a wife, mother, grandmother, sister, friend, and much more to many, most fulfilled when caring for the people she loved and the strangers that would soon become friends. She was never happier than when all of her family was together for reunions, holidays, and Sundays after church. A proud “country mouse”, she preferred peaceful moments and the comforts of home.
She was preceded in death by her son, Thomas Rorick, and siblings, Joseph Braun and Jean Rauch. She is warmly remembered by her sisters, Betty Wellman and Dorie Wyss-Brite, daughter-in-law Melissa Rorick, her children, Paul (Rita) Rorick, Geralyn (Andy) Boyden, and Patty (Jeff) Ellenberger, her 10 grandchildren, Katie Scherer, Daria Rorick, Leih Boyden, Seth Boyden, Anya Boyden, Kevin Ellenberger, Bridget Wray, Erin Winters, Claire Ellenberger-Knoop, Nathan Ellenberger and her 8 great-grandchildren.
Phyllis’ life and memory reminds us that the surest people are never the loudest, and those with the strongest convictions are not the biggest or most boastful. But, instead, the clearest voices, ones that reverberate through time, come from the most sincere among us, ensuring they are never truly gone.
On Monday, December 29, 2025, Visitation will be held from 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. in the Front Lobby of Adams Woodcrest Assisted Living and from 4:30 – 6:30 p.m. at Haggard-Hirschy & Zelt Funeral Home, with a reciting of the Holy Rosary at 4:00 p.m.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered at 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday December 30, 2025, in St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church, with Father Stephen Colchin presiding. Visitation will be held an hour prior to Mass from 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. in the St. Mary’s Parish Hall. Burial will immediately follow in St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery.
Preferred memorials may be made to St. Joseph Catholic School or St. Vincent de Paul Society.
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