Elia Sanchez Parsons

Elia Ester Sanchez Parsons, 74, passed away on December 26, 2011, as a result of a long convalescence due to Alzheimer's Disease. Collaborating with her neighbor Marguerite Kelly, she co-authored the best selling children's book, The Mother's Almanac, published by Doubleday in 1975, which has sold over one million copies. Ms. Parsons was born in the village of Alvero Obregon in Tabasco, Mexico, immigrated with her family to the USA at the age of eight, and grew up in Evansville, Indiana. After graduating from Rosary College in River Forest, Illinois, she worked as an assistant editor at the publishing house of Holt, Rinehart & Winston and as a volunteer in the 1960 Kennedy Presidential election campaign, where she met her future husband, Richard Keith Parsons. After marrying in 1961, she and her husband relocated to Washington, DC where she lived on Capitol Hill for over 35 years. She was a founder of the Capitol Hill Montessori School and taught Spanish, French, and Science to pre-school and elementary school children. Later, she worked at the Forecast on Capitol Hill, The National Children's Museum, and the Public Broadcasting Service. She was also an accomplished violinist, an excellent hostess and cook, and loved opera. Her husband Richard Parsons died in 1990. She is survived by her brother Richard X. Sanchez, of Hattiesburg, MS; her half brother Pascual G. Sanchez of Mexico City, Mexico; three children, Ramon Parsons of Manhasset, NY; Nadia Richman of Boston, MA; and Amalia Jones of Washington, DC; and nine grandchildren. The funeral service will be held on Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10 AM at St. Paul's Rock Creek Church at the intersection of Rock Creek Road and Webster Street, NW. Reception at 4411 Davenport St., NW will follow.