Ruth Wilson Parker

Ruth was born on February 9th, 1923 to farmers George Richard Wilson and Stella Texas Caffey Wilson of Zephyr, Texas. She was the youngest of five children being closest in both age and spirit to her brother Luther, who would cover for her removing her uncomfortable stockings as they rode their horses to school in return for her silence about them selling a family chicken to pay for movie tickets while their unknowing mom ran weekend errands in town.

She attended Howard Payne University, meeting Charles Vernon Parker by way of her roommate. While he was deployed, she worked nights at Camp Bowie, and when Vernon returned from the Pacific theater, they pursued their courtship. They married in 1948. They were perfectly compatible, as Ruth never made a mistake in her life, and Vernon agreed about that. They had two children, Elizabeth Carole in 1951 and Charles Vernon, Jr. in 1956. Through Carole, she had three grandsons, and through Charlie, she had two granddaughters. Both of her children, and later all five of her grandchildren gave her their fair share of trouble, but never did they get the best of her.

When Carole and Charlie were teenagers, Ruth returned to college, to pursue a Master’s degree at SMU, funded in large part by a scholarship from the Dallas school district where she taught first grade for 42 years. Teaching was, in every sense of the word, her passion and her calling. She spent her professional life giving children a firm foundation in reading and writing so that they could succeed through the rest of their schooling, but it was in her home life that she truly taught. She taught her children the importance of leading a life based in principle. She taught them the importance of forgiveness. She taught them what it really meant to be a mother, a partner, and a respectable member of society. She never left anyone out in the cold, at home or in life.

Her grandchildren knew her as a strong woman, who never closed a door gently in her life, but they also knew of the warmth that couldn’t help but come through that hard shell. She had a tenderness and a nurturing soul that showed itself in her gardening. Everyone who knew her, from her neighbors to her friends at Shiloh Terrace Baptist Church, knew she could not be kept out of her garden. She would tend to her flowers and plants like a dedicated postal worker. Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail would keep her from her gardening, and her high water bills stood as a testament to that love she had. Anyone who drove or walked down her street from when they purchased it in 1971 to when she passed more than 50 years later, would likely have seen her sitting in her flower beds with a hand trowel.

Ruth’s happy retirement years were spent in Bible Study Fellowship, bridge and book clubs and world travel. She traveled to Europe, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, South America, the Caribbean, as well as Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico. To say she had an adventurous spirit would be an understatement. She was blessed by the friendships she made along this path.

With her passing, in the home she shared with Vernon, she ascends to heaven to be lovingly reunited with her parents, husband, siblings, son, and grandson Nicolas. She is survived by her daughter, her grandsons Julien and Philippe, and her granddaughters Sadie and Grace.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Ruth’s memory may be made to:

Southern Methodist University,

Shiloh Terrace Baptist Church, or

The Arbor Day Foundation.