OBITUARY

ADDIE RUTH FOX PARKER

(December 14, 1917 – May 30, 2023)

MRS. ADDIE RUTH FOX PARKER was born on December 14, 1917, to an African-American family in Jacksonville (Calhoun County), Alabama and reared in their home located on the fringe of the town square. Her father who died in 1936 was Cass Fox – a leading citizen in the community who was a businessman who owned and operated a restaurant and funeral home as well as an owner of a vast amount of land and houses in Jacksonville (some of which he rented), quite a remarkable achievement for a black man in the 1800s in the South – and her mother was Jennie Taylor Fox, a school teacher, who died in 1956. She had four siblings: three brothers (Charles, Theodore and Thomas) and one sister (Milton Jo), all of whom are deceased.

She was a graduate of Cobb High School in Anniston, Alabama (Calhoun County) and Alabama A&M College (now Alabama A&M University) in Huntsville, Alabama, where she played tennis and sang in the choir. As an early hobby she also enjoyed riding horses that were gifted to her by her parents. Divorced with a daughter, Marvice, and as a member of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, now the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church since 1956 (CME), she married Rev. Dr. (Pastor) Joseph C. Parker, Sr., a Baptist pastor, on July 28, 1951, in Anniston, Alabama. They remained married until his death in 1987. Her husband was a pastor, civil rights leader, teacher, principal, faculty member at the Birmingham (Alabama) Baptist College, and Church Relations Director at Bishop College in Dallas Texas. He also served as pastor of churches in Jacksonville, Anniston, Montgomery, and Birmingham, Alabama, as well as Fort Worth and Dallas, Texas, where she served with him as the pastor's wife and occasional pianist, starting in 1951.

Mrs. Parker is survived by five children: Marvice J. Sims, Rev. Dr. Joseph C. Parker, Jr., Esq. (J. LaVerne Morris-Parker), Gail B. Parker, Lynne N. Wheelock (Rev. Todd M. Wheelock), and Linda A. Zanders (Deacon Calvin Zanders). She also has five grandchildren: Alan L. Sims, Jessica L. Parker-Battle (Rev. Dr. Jeremy D. Battle, Sr.), Jennifer L. Parker, Janetta L. Parker, and Sydney L. Zanders; and three great-grandchildren: Jordan L. Battle, Jeremy D. Battle, Jr. and Jennifer Jocie-Lauren Battle.

Having been raised in her hometown of Jacksonville, Alabama, she also lived in Anniston, Montgomery and Birmingham, Alabama, as well as in Fort Worth, Dallas and DeSoto, Texas. She had been a Texas resident since 1972 and was a member of the Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas.

She retired from a decades-long elementary school teaching career, having taught in Alabama and Texas. All her daughters continued the teaching tradition of her and her mother, and are now retired teachers in Texas and California. Her son is a Texas senior Baptist pastor and attorney-mediator.

While living in Montgomery and Birmingham, Alabama in the 1950s and 1960s, she served in the Alabama Civil Rights Movement as a dedicated and hard-working confidante, partner, participant, and supporter of her husband – Rev. Dr. Joseph C. Parker, Sr. – who was a founding pastor, servant, racial justice advocate, and leader of the Alabama Civil Rights Movement, starting in 1955 with his involvement in the Montgomery Bus Boycott; Montgomery Improvement Association; Montgomery Inter-denominational Ministerial Alliance (Secretary); NAACP; Selma to Montgomery Marches; the Birmingham civil rights protests; and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and alongside her husband's Morehouse College schoolmate and friend, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, and Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, Sr. and his wife, Juanita Jones Abernathy. Mrs. Parker continuously utilized her voting rights to impact the world in a positive matter.

She was an enthusiastic, loyal and dedicated Dallas Cowboys fan, wearing her Cowboys jersey every time she watched "her boys" play. In 2021, for her 104th birthday, she was particularly appreciative, proud and honored to receive a signed helmet by Dak Prescott, quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys football team.

Mrs. Parker's children, grandchildren, other family members, friends, teaching colleagues, and acquaintances use these words to describe her qualities and attributes that they believe contributed to her wonderfully successful life and career – character: strong Christian faith, integrity, commitment, and action; personality: warm, compassionate, giving, loving, determined spirit, lively, and humorous; and intelligence: has had and until her death possessed an alert, keen and very inquisitive mind.

Today we celebrate the long and well lived life of Mrs. Addie Ruth Fox Parker.