Emily Phoenix Bloom

Emily Phoenix Bloom

Cedar Rapids

Emily Phoenix Bloom, 40, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, passed away May 24, 2024, at her apartment in Des Moines, Iowa.

A private celebration of Emily’s life was held for family and friends in Cedar Rapids on June 1. On Sunday, June 2, there will be a service in celebration of her life and creative works at 3:00 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Des Moines.

Emily was born April 27, 1984, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Russell and Susan Hendryx. She graduated from Washington High School in 2002. From age 23, she spent 10 years living in Chicago before moving back to Iowa, where she lived in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines.

From a young age Emily was a prodigious musician. She took piano lessons early in life and primarily learned by teaching herself to read music, play by ear, improvise, give lessons, perform, and compose. She brought an abundance of effortlessly beautiful music into the world and inspired passion for piano and improvisation in her students. Emily was also a gifted artist from a young age and expressed herself through painting and drawing, much of which celebrated the joy and beauty of life.

Emily was a playful and adventurous soul who continually created and sought out meaningful connections with others to better understand herself. She was not easily content; she continually strove, often painfully, to find a meaningful purpose and place in the world. Her sense of humor was clever and inexhaustible; her contribution to her family’s years-long game night tradition was inimitably whimsical.

Emily had a huge heart filled with compassion and altruism. She believed strongly that people should love and take care of each other and lived those values through her volunteering. She dreamed of and worked toward a world of equity and peace and believed that kind of reality was where she would awaken upon her death.

Emily is survived by her loving partner, Sarah Chang; her mother, Susan Hendryx; her three siblings, Erica (Christopher) Coutsouridis, Carl (Lacey) Hendryx, and Joseph (Alison) Hendryx; her nephew, George Coutsouridis; and several aunts, uncles and cousins.

She was preceded in death by her father, Russell Hendryx.

In lieu of flowers, Emily asked that memorial donations be made to the National Center for Transgender Equality: https://donate.transequality.org/a/ncte