Reverend Canon Katherine Phillips Jacob

Obituary For Reverend Canon Katherine Phillips Jacob

Katherine Phillips Jacob, of Birmingham, Alabama, had a most joyful transition to be with her Lord Jesus Christ on Monday, January 23rd, 2023 after a battle with kidney disease. She was 79 years young.

Katherine Phillips was born on August 30, 1943 to Chauncey and Vera Phillips in Birmingham. A graduate of Parker High School, she studied English at Alabama A&M University and earned a BA in Human Resources Management at Birmingham-Southern College.

She moved to California in 1969 where she fell in love with Louis Oliver Jacob, a retired Staff Sergeant in the US Air Force. In California, Katherine was a wildly talented homemaker who enjoyed oil painting, sewing, light carpentry, and for a time, operated a business from her home making elaborate wedding cakes.

Following Louis’s tragic death from cancer in 1978, Katherine moved with her three girls back to Birmingham. She worked as a real estate agent at Johnson-Rast & Hays in the 1980s and in the early 90s with the United Way of Central Alabama as the Director of Volunteer Services. Katherine was truly passionate about mission work, and traveled with groups to Namibia during Apartheid, as well as Bolivia, Brazil, Malawi, Panama, and Haiti, where she visited more than a dozen times, forming close relationships within the communities she served.

Katherine was ordained a Deacon of the Episcopal Church in the first class of Deacons of the Diocese of Alabama in 2002. In 2009, she earned a Master of Theological Studies from Beeson Divinity School at Samford University. Katherine faithfully served the Cathedral Church of the Advent. She was much loved for her evident faith in Jesus Christ as she served others through her diaconate ministry. As a deacon, her reverent proclamation of the Gospel, and her reading of the Prayers of the People, endeared her to the hearts of the faithful and brought a reality to the servanthood of Christ represented by the diaconate. She continued throughout her ministry to be involved with the Beeson community, where she furthered her Biblical scholarship.

In addition to the love of her life, Katherine was predeceased by her brother Elbert Phillips and sister Mary Elizabeth Hall. She is survived by sisters Margaret Phillips and JoAnn Genus, brothers Michael Phillips and Chauncey Phillips, Jr., her stepson Edwin O. Jacob (Gladys Jacob), her daughters, Joyce Y. Jacob-Mua (John Paul Mua), Michelle Jacob Everheart, and Kristina L. Jacob, as well as 11 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Family visitation will be held at The Cathedral Church of The Advent on Saturday, January 28th at 2:00pm in the afternoon, followed by a memorial Eucharist at 3:00pm. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Advent Outreach Fund in her memory.