Phillis Wheatley Jones. Jones. Wheatley. Newman. Diller. All Phillis’s, and Phyllis’s, or Phillisii and Phyllis’s. Phillis Wheatley Jones is named for Phillis Wheatley. But part of her development, “in patience and understanding,” she will tell you over many years is that she has had to explain the difference in the spellings of the two names at inopportune times.
When Phillis Wheatley Jones of Chicago, Illinois was young, she would help her Aunt Tessie “pick blackberries off bushes in around Lake Michigan,” used to make pies, one of recipes she passed on to Lana McCracken, when they would come over to help as “hired bakers in charge of all holidays,” Phillis coming lot of times, most importantly for Thanksgivings, Christmases. Also, chicken dumplings pot roast baked ham pineapple were Ro
