The Sac City woman championed that cause for about 30 years, serving as the president of the U.S. 20 Corridor Association for much of that time. In one of her more memorable efforts to promote the need for a four-lane highway, she led the association in bringing small radio-controlled cars to the rotunda of the state Capitol.

Phillips, 75, died Nov. 26 in Loring Hospital in Sac City. She died about six years after the final four-lane piece of U.S. Highway 20 was completed.

She was president of the U.S. 20 Corridor Association from the late 1990s until 2018, when the group disbanded after the project was completed.

“Our organization required a leader who had the ability to unite everyone with one mission in mind and keep us uplifted and motivated,” said Ann Trimble-Ray, an association member from Early.

“She was fierce in the best possible way,” Trimble-Ray added. “She could be tough, but she was always compassionate.”

According to Bob Singer, a Fort Dodge man who served as senior vice president of the association, Phillips “jumped in” when it became clear a major effort was going to be needed to complete the last four-lane section of the highway between Fort Dodge and Sioux City.

“She was a big, big, strong key player in that whole effort,” he said.

As part of that effort, Phillips devised a way to show legislators the benefit of a four-lane highway in a very real way that didn’t require them to leave the Capitol. She and other association members laid out a kind of track on the floor in the Capitol rotunda area, with some of the track consisting of two lanes and some consisting of four lanes. Lawmakers were then invited to steer radio-controlled cars on the track.

“She got a big charge out of planning that,” Singer said.

That track was only set up in the Capitol once.

“She was politely asked not to bring it back, but you talk about a message that got through loud and clear,” said Steve Hoesel, an association member from Fort Dodge.

Hoesel said lobbying for a four-lane highway was a group effort, but Phillips was “the one with the ability to be the front person.”

He added that she was a “very good, outstanding front person.”

Phillips, he said, convinced three Republican state senators to vote in favor of a 10-cents per gallon increase in the state’s gas tax. That increase was approved and provided the extra money needed to get the last four-lane section in western Iowa completed.

But before that section was completed, there were many trips to the legislature and to Iowa Transportation Commission meetings. Mary Gross, an association member from Holstein, accompanied Phillips on many of those trips.

Gross described Phillips as “tenacious.”

“She was definitely one of a kind,” Gross added.

Terry Christensen, the publisher of The Messenger and The Daily Freeman-Journal, worked with Phillips on some U.S. Highway 20 marketing projects.

“I was so impressed with her vision and passion to complete the final leg of 20,” he said. “Shirley was a natural leader, a big thinker and a joy to work with — she was a force.”

Leading the U.S. 20 Corridor Association was a volunteer endeavor, but the highway was also linked to Phillips’ career.

In 1988, she was named executive director of Sac Economic and Tourism Development. Then in 2013, she became executive director of the Western Iowa Tourism Region.

The highway group was hardly the only civic organization Phillips was part of. She was a member and president of the Travel Federation of Iowa. She was also a member of Main Street Sac City, the Sac County Endowment Foundation, the Plan and Zoning Commission, Sac City Board of Education, Sac County Crime Stoppers and the Sac County Historical Society.