Our beloved Dad and Grandaddy, Preston Ashford Parham, age 96, received an honorable dis-charge from this life on April 5, 2018. A resident of the Tidewater area since 1940, he spent his final years and peacefully departed mortality in Dayton, Ohio. He was a World War II Navy vet-eran and Pearl Harbor survivor.
Born December 15, 1921 in Darvills, Dinwiddie, Virginia to Charles Albert Parham and Alma Lu-cille (Vaughan) Parham, he was the fourth of five children. He married Hazel Irene Whitehead on December 2, 1949. They had two daughters, Karen and Dianne.
Preston joined the U.S. Navy in February 1940. He was assigned to the USS St Louis and was on board December 7, 1941. After Pearl Harbor he served throughout the Pacific theater until the conclusion of the war, when he was present aboard the USS Pasadena in Tokyo Bay at the signing of the terms of surrender. March 1946, after discharge from the Navy, he attended and graduated from Embry-Riddle School of Aviation in Daytona Beach, Florida. He worked for 36 years as an aircraft engine mechanic, for the U.S. Navy at the Naval Air Station Rework Facility in Norfolk, Virginia.
A quiet man, he was kind, steady, cheerful and uncomplaining. He was handy with everything mechanical and insatiably curious about the world. His bookshelves held stacks of ‘National Ge-ographic’ and ‘Popular Science’ among many others. His grandkids used to say, “Grandaddy can fix anything!”
He and Irene were founding members of St Andrews United Methodist Church and he was its oldest member at the time of his death. They loved the people, spirit, fellowship, and association they found with those of the church; they experienced purpose and direction in living lives of faith centered in Jesus Christ.
Preston is survived by his daughters, Karen (William J.) Foster and Dianne (Robert L.) Johnson, Jr; five grandchildren: Jason R. (Amour M.) Johnson, Autumn F. (Joseph V) Cook, Holly John-son Thomas (Michael J. Wheby), Robert Graham Foster, and Ashleigh F. (Ryan F) Balli, 12 great-grandchildren, and one great-great-granddaughter.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Irene; and his siblings Clyde Beatrice Parham (infant), Oscar Woodrow Parham, Maurine Parham Mayo, and Vivian Parham Martin.
Visitation will be held Thursday, April 12 from 6:00-8:00 pm at Rosewood-Kellum Funeral Home, 601 N Witchduck Rd, Virginia Beach. Services will be held on Friday 13 April at 11:30 am at St Andrew’s United Methodist Church, 717 Tucson Rd, Virginia Beach. Interment will take place at Rosewood Memorial Park, 631 N Witchduck Rd, Virginia Beach.
