Phyllis Beth

Bradshaw

Phyllis Beth Bradshaw (Witt) was born in New Rochelle, New York on Jan. 21, 1959 to Geraldine Yelin and Stuart Witt. She passed away on Nov. 2, 2026 in Tyler, Texas surrounded by her family, two dogs, and granddog after years of fighting cancer.

Phyllis grew up in Norwalk, Connecticut and on Singer Island in South Florida. She was big sister to her “much younger” brother David Witt and loved telling stories of how she messed with him, once feeding him a dog treat. The Witt family’s life on Singer Island was full of pets, including a monkey named Samantha who Phyllis hated. Samantha didn’t like her either. She attended Cardinal Newman High School where she met the best of friends, Mary Jo Higgins and Paul Brewer, a trio who stayed close through adulthood. A high school friend was always on the phone or chatting with Phyllis on Facebook.

At 19, when Phyllis was a student at Florida State University, her mother died after a battle with breast cancer. Phyllis missed her mother for the rest of her life and saw her in the freckles on the right sides of her kids faces. They matched her mother’s.

Phyllis moved to Dallas, Texas in the ‘80s to attend court reporting school, following in the footsteps of her father who had a court reporting firm. After court reporting school, she returned to her career as a dental assistant. It was in Dallas where she met the love of her life Ron Bradshaw. The pair famously (to her daughter, at least) met during a Tri-Dallas meeting over a bowl of pretzels. They started training for marathons and triathlons together and Ron proposed just after midnight on New Year’s Eve in the first seconds of 1992. Phyllis didn’t believe him and told him to ask her again in the morning.

Phyllis and Ron spent just short of 35 years together. For most of their marriage, they lived on Longmeadow Drive in the Lake Highlands neighborhood of Dallas where their kids Kelsey and Jeffrey grew up. Phyllis and Ron were known for their parties, giving out hot dogs AKA “Halloweenies” on Halloween, and being the house with the robin’s-egg blue bug car.

Phyllis loved mowing the lawn, her 1950s diner-style kitchen, and riding her bike around White Rock Lake. She never turned down a chance to eat at Desperado’s in Dallas, or enjoy a michelada from anywhere. She loved Bruce Springsteen, Adam Lambert, and Barbra Streisand. Her favorite movie was “Dirty Dancing.”

Her biggest, biggest joy was being a mom. She was the best mom. Even through her three breast cancer diagnoses between 1995 and 2011, she cheered louder than most at Jeffrey’s high school marching band performances and during Kelsey’s short-lived cheerleading career. She loved everything her kids did. Whether it was Jeffrey’s robots club in high school or Kelsey’s time at the student newspaper in college, she was amazed at everything they did.

Phyllis was also the funniest. She always committed to the bit and was down for any and all pranks. The best, though, was when the family got Phyllis to laugh so hard that she turned red and launched into a coughing fit.

Phyllis was a dedicated preschool teacher at the Jewish Community Center and Temple Emanu-El in Dallas. She kept up with her students and their families long after they left her once Clifford-themed classroom. No one was more meant to be a preschool teacher than Phyllis. She’s always had a kinship with kids, knowing just how to speak to them.

Phyllis had a love-hate relationship with the Dallas Cowboys, loved Reese’s and Twizzlers, and adored every dog she ever had. Ralph and Daisy are surely overjoyed to be reunited with our girl. Her favorite color was orange, which matched her crazy, curly red hair and freckled skin. She had an orange cycling bike and eventually losing her ability to cycle with her 2018 myelofibrosis diagnosis was one of Phyllis’s big heartbreaks. She rode until her second stem cell transplant in 2021. She loved spending mornings riding with the Velo Vets.

In 2023, Phyllis and Ron moved to Hawkins in East Texas where they lived out a long held dream of owning land and a wraparound porch. Phyllis loved her life in the country. She loved joking about the terrible traffic which usually involved just one car driving by. She loved shopping at the many antique and thrift stores in town. She loved how quiet it was. In the weeks before her death, and between medical appointments for yet another cancer diagnosis, Phyllis was still so, so happy.

“Despite all the cancer and medical stuff, we have a pretty great life out here,” she told Ron on their winding drive home one day.

Phyllis is preceded in death by her parents, Geraldine and Stuart Witt, her niece Olivia Witt, her in-laws Ivan and Mary Bradshaw, and Betty Bradshaw. She is survived by her husband Ron Bradshaw, two children Kelsey Bradshaw and Jeffrey Bradshaw, her brother David Witt (Veronica), her stepmom Myrna Witt, her chocolate labs Jalapeño and Millie, and many nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held at noon on Thursday, Dec. 3, 2026 at Winfrey Point on White Rock Lake in Dallas, 950 E. Lawther Dr.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations in Phyllis’s memory to the American Cancer Society, Animal Preservation of East Texas, or the charity of your choice.