Phil Curls
Phil B. Curls Sr. was an American Democratic politician who served in the Missouri Senate from 1984 until 1998 and the Missouri House of Representatives from 1972 until 1982. He was elected to the Missouri Senate by winning a special election in 1983.
Curls graduated from DeLaSalle High School and Rockhurst College in Kansas City. He had worked as a real estate broker and appraiser.
Curls was a founding member of the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus Foundation. Curls' father helped found Freedom, Inc., the oldest African American political club in the country.
He died in 2007, the same week as his wife, Melba Curls, was inaugurated as an at-large councilwoman for Kansas City. In 2017, a senior living development in Kansas City named Curls Manor was after him.
