About the Proprietors

The Owners and Proprietors of Llano Grande Plantation Bed&Breakfast are Captain and Mrs. Charles K. Phillips (Chuck and Ann).

Charles K. Phillips, a sixth generation native of Pennsylvania, is the son of Roy Alexander Phillips and Hilda Klingelhofer Phillips. Until he was ten years old he attended schools in Pittsburgh. In 1925 his family moved to Clairton, PA where he graduated from high school in 1932 tied for top honors. In July of that year he was sworn in as a Midshipman in the US Navy and was subsequently graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD in the Class of 1936.

Thirty years of Naval service took him from Ensign to Captain and to duties at sea on the U.S.S. Relief, a hospital ship, and the U.S.S. Massachusetts, a battleship, and ashore in Alaska, Guam, Washington D.C., Boston, Philadelphia, China Lake, CA, and Great Lakes, IL. Past graduate schooling such as The Navy Finance School in Philadelphia, the Graduate School of Business at Harvard University, the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in Washington D.C. and the George Washington University, steered his assignments to all aspects of the Navy's business affairs. Positions such as Comptroller of the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Director of the Stock Finance Division, and Director of Management Engineering, led to final duty as Dean of the Resident School of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, which is the senior educational institution devoted to study of the consequences of national defense, reporting directly to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Upon retirement he took up residence in Nacogdoches, TX. Mrs. Phillips' (Ann Cox Phillips) family had settled in Nacogdoches as early as 1835. Along with his work as a member of the faculty in the Business School of Stephen F. Austin State University, he became engrossed in local history, and the preservation of historic structures. He has been:

Chairman of the Nacogdoches County Historical Commission

President of the East Texas Historical Association

Member of the Nacogdoches Landmark Preservation Committee

President of the Sterne-Hoya Library and Museum

Member, Board of Directors, Historic House Association of America

On their Llano Grande Plantation, he and his wife, Ann C. Phillips, have together restored the Tol Barret House (1840), which is on the National Register of Historic Places and a Texas Historic Landmark; the John Marion Sparks House (1851), a Texas Historic Landmark, and Rose Wild, the home of Victor Jefferson Simpson (1855). The Phillips have also been deeply involved with the restoration of the Adolphus Sterne Home, the Acosta-Taylor House, Old Nacogdoches University, and the Half-Way House, the latter in Chireno, TX.

Mrs. Phillips moved from Nacogdoches in the mid-1930s to Los Angeles where she graduated from Hollywood High School. She was attending the University of Southern California when she met Ensign Charles Phillips whose ship was homeported in San Pedro. They were married in 1939 and sailed immediately to Sitka, Alaska, where he had been ordered to duty at the Fleet Air Base. History was her undergraduate major. While in Guam, she became a substitute teacher in the elementary schools there. While living in Alexandria, VA she spent three years studying early American decorative arts and antique furniture restoration, and eventually taught courses at the YWCA on these subjects. She became very proficient in the use of gold leaf and stencilling in the restoration of Hitchcock chairs. Much of her handiwork has been used to furnish the historic houses now available to guests as Bed & Breakfast accommodations. Her wide-ranging interests have been associated with membership and leadership in:

Daughters of the Republic of Texas (DRT)

United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC)

Daughters of the American Revolution

Colonial Dames of the 17th Century

Zeta Tau Alpha Sorority Alumnae Association

Nacogdoches Federation of Women's Clubs

Women's organizations of the Episcopal Church