Tonganoxie ? Notable Dr. Phil Stevens, who made a name for himself predicting the weather and just last Wednesday marked 60 years of service, died in his sleep Thursday, family members said. He was 87.

The family physician and local icon delivered babies early in his career while also serving as a family physician all those years.

The past several years, he also was known as Tonganoxie Phil, Kansas’ answer to national weather predictor Punxsutawney Phil. A local radio station would contact Stevens for his weather predictions each February. The Tonganoxie Mirror and the Journal-World continued the tradition after the radio station discontinued the annual report.

Dr. Philip Stevens, aka Tonganoxie Phil, poses with a stuffed groundhog in February 2014, when he predicted an early spring. Stevens, 87, died last Thursday.

Stevens served his patients out of the same office for all 60 years. Walking in, one could see what it might have looked like six decades earlier, as much of the furniture remain unchanged. He started his practice on July 1, 1955, in the office at 605 E. Fourth St.

A 1945 graduate of Oskaloosa High School, Stevens worked on the press at the Oskaloosa Independent newspaper during his high school days.

He then was off to Kansas University, where he earned his bachelor’s in 1950 and medical degree in 1954. He also served a year in the Army while in college.

Former Tonganoxie physician Bill Howland asked Stevens whether he wanted to buy his practice, and Stevens jumped at the chance.

“I probably thought about it for two minutes,” Stevens recently told the Tonganoxie Mirror.

He also had plans of making Tonganoxie his family’s home for years to come.

“I intended to stay here for life,” Stevens said. “When we moved into our house 60 years ago, I told Betty, ‘I hope you like this place, because I’m never going to move,'” Stevens said with a chuckle, recalling a conversation he had with his wife. “Honest to God.”

Stevens delivered several babies in his first years in the practice. Many still live in the area, such as Connie Torneden, who proudly notes she was on Stevens’ “wall of fame” of composite baby photos.

Stevens delivered babies for eight-plus years, but eventually had to quit because it had become too much delivering at night and then working all day in the office.

For the first 18 years of Stevens’ career, all of his patients were walk-in customers.

“People would be standing in front of the door in the morning,” he said.

With so many years of service in Tonganoxie, Stevens got to know many people — and several generations of patients.

“I just feel real close to a lot of people,” he said. “And of course they do to me, too.”

Stevens and his wife, Betty, saw many changes in the community through the years. Their home was built nearly a century ago as a farmhouse. Tonganoxie has grown, and now the home is part of a neighborhood that’s been established for some time.

The couple had six children who grew up in Tonganoxie and now are in various locations.

Philip D. is a physician who splits time between Hays and a spot in New Mexico, while Charles lives in Norway and works as a counselor. Matt is a real estate broker in Kansas City, Mo., while daughter Lisa Scheller is an editor and photographer at the Kansas University Endowment Association. Another son, Dan, is a registered nurse who lives in Tonganoxie. And Loralee, the youngest, is an assistant dean at Johnson County Community College.

Days before his death, Stevens told the Tonganoxie Mirror he loved what he did and planned to keep doctoring as long as his health allowed.

“Well, I would like to never retire,” he said.

Thursday morning, his wish came true.