Loretta A Parker

Loretta A. Parker (Yocum) passed away peacefully on Tuesday, October 12, 2021, surrounded by her family. She was born June 29, 1927, in Overcup, Arkansas, to Payton and Velma Yocum. She graduated from Morrilton High School in 1944 and went on to attend the Arkansas State Teachers College (now the University of Central Arkansas) studying Home Economics and Textiles.

She married the love of her life, Douglas W. Parker on September 17, 1945, in Little Rock, Arkansas. When Douglas was honorably discharged from the Army Air Corps, they moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas, where they resided from 1945 to 1948. Following Douglas’s graduation from the University of Arkansas, they moved to Fort Smith where they would live out their lives.

Loretta embodied the best of the “Greatest Generation,” in that she modeled love of family, civic engagement, and love of God. To say Loretta was involved in the Fort Smith community would be an understatement. She held over thirty leadership positions throughout the city, including twenty-four years on the Sparks Hospital Foundation board, serving as the president of the Sparks Hospital Guild, ten years on the Fort Smith Parking Authority, the Fort Smith Public Schools where she served as the Northside High School PTA president, a founding member of the Hardscrabble Garden Club, and multiple times as president of Chapter F PEO, where she was a sister for fifty-seven years. She impacted numerous lives through her service to the Fort Smith First United Methodist Church where she served as a trustee of the church, president of United Methodist Women, a choir member, a youth counselor, and as a board member of both the Administration and Foundation boards.

At her core, Loretta Parker was an upstanding woman who would do anything for her loved ones. A true lady, who epitomized elegance, beauty, morality, and character. She found joy in the world through her sharp wit, wonderful sense of humor, and intellectual curiosity. She will be missed by all those who had the pleasure to have ever known her.

Loretta was preceded in death by five sisters, one brother, her beloved son, Dr. Douglas W. Parker Jr., and her husband and love of her life for seventy-three years, Douglas W. Parker Sr. She is survived by her son, Kyle D. Parker and his wife Renee; Melissa Parker, her daughter-in-law, and her sister Carolyn Yarbrough (Bobby). She left behind four grandchildren, Ashley Parker, Brandon Parker (Jessica), Marshall Parker, and Christian Parker; two great-grandchildren, Wade and Zoie Parker, as well as a host of nieces and nephews.

Visitation with the family will be held at Edwards Funeral Home on Sunday, October 17 from 1:00 – 3:00 pm. Following a private family committal at Rose Lawn cemetery, the memorial service and celebration of life will be held in the sanctuary of First United Methodist Church on Monday, October 18, at 10:00 am.

Pallbearers will be Loretta’s three grandsons and her great-grandson, as well as Dr. John Watts, and James Kimbrough.

Memorials may be made to the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education or the First United Methodist Church of Fort Smith.

A special thank you from the family for her wonderful care-givers: Chana Willyard, Mary Edith Cypert, Virginia Abshere, Chicago Breedlove, Annette Polk, Victoria Alvarado, Priscilla Myers, and the staff of Heart of Hospice.

Online condolences may be sent to: www.edwardsfuneralhome.com