Parthenia Marie Ham

Parthenia was born in Folsom, OK, to E. R. (Doc) and Lottie Wolfe. The family moved to Kansas for a short time before moving to Morenci, Arizona, in 1946. While in Jr. High School, she met J. R. Ham, who had also recently arrived in Morenci. The two graduated from Morenci High School in 1951. Later that year, they were married and spent more than 67 years together. Their daughter, Lynda, was born in Corona, CA, while J.R. was in the U.S. Marine Corps. Shona was born two years later in Morenci, AZ. An excellent seamstress, Parthenia made almost all of her daughters’ clothing, including formals and prom dresses, and a wedding dress for Shona in 1974.

During her lifetime, Parthenia worked many jobs: PBX operator, bookkeeper, and hospital insurance secretary, to name a few. Her most enriching job was selling real estate. In December of 1977, she earned her license to sell and began her career as a real estate agent in Safford, AZ, at Preston Realty. March of 1981, while working at Curtis Real Estate, she earned her brokers license. In the fall of that year, she and J.R. opened Parthenia Realty. After almost 9 years of great success, they closed the business and moved to Lake Havasu City. There they worked for McCulloch Realty where Parthenia continued to sell and was named Relocation Director. June 1996 brought them to Tucson where they began selling for Long Realty.

Early in her career, she began earning accolades including: Outstanding Sales Achievement, induction into the Realtor Honor Society, $1,000,000 Club (for sales in escrow/year), and President’s Club ($2,000,000 in escrow/year). She served on committees and held office in the local Association of Realtors and accepted a position on the board of the Arizona Association of Realtors. Parthenia retired from real estate in 2002 to recover from major back surgery.

While Real Estate was enriching, she found art to be joyful! Parthenia began by painting pin-up girls on mugs to sell to her husband’s fellow Marines. Her art took a backseat for many years as her family and career took her time. In 1973, she began again, painting with oils, acrylics, colored pencil and pastels. The joy of it never ended.

Most people will remember her style. Platinum blonde hair, polished nails, high heels and elegant jewelry went perfectly with her gorgeous clothes and colorful personality. Parthenia was ahead of her time, dying her hair pink in the late 1960’s.

While she always appreciated lovely flowers, Parthenia did not have time to garden herself. After retiring, she and J.R. filled their patio with beautiful flowering plants. Almost year round, J.R. cut roses, hibiscus and gardenias, put them in vases and brought them inside to enjoy.

None but the closest of friends and family knew of Parthenia’s serious health and pain issues of many years. Parthenia, a proud breast cancer survivor, was known as beautiful, stylish, intelligent, active, artistic and funny.

Preceding her in death are her parents; her sister, Billie (Jim) Hardcastle; granddaughter, Natalie Naccarati. She leaves behind husband, J.R. Ham; daughters, Lynda (Gary, deceased) Scarbrough and Shona (David) Naccarati; grandchildren, Vincent (Katie Hines) Naccarati and Hillary (James) Blankinship; great-grandson, Gabriel Blankinship; brothers, Mike Wolfe and Jerry (Linda) Wolfe.

Thank you to family and friends for the cards, letters, calls, notes, flowers, gifts, and visits. The family thanks the TMC Hospice team for their loving care.

In lieu of flowers, Parthenia requested donations to one of the following: American Heart Association; American Lung Association; Breast Cancer Research Foundation; American Diabetes Association.