5/4/2010
Virginia (Mikesell) Parker was born and raised in Knoxville in 1931. Virginia passed
away in Glendora, Calif., of bladder cancer on May 4, 2010.
The daughter of Ray
and Beatrice Mikesell and sister to James and Larry Mikesell, Virginia grew up on
Marion Street and was known as “Ginny” to her friends. Through living across the
street from the Knoxville City swimming pool and her love of the water, she excelled
at diving and was a lifeguard during her teen years. She loved to sing and sang
on Sundays in the choir at the First Christian Church. Ginny could also be seen
working part time at Braida's Market.
In September 1945, the family suffered a terrible
loss when 12-year-old brother James lost his life in a hunting accident.
Ginny married
Theodore E. Parker from Prairie City in 1951. They began their family and moved
west to California in 1957. Ted and Ginny settled in a lovely, three-bedroom home
with a pool in Glendora. While raising their family of four children, Ginny began
working part-time with the Glendora School District in 1965 as a dietician. During
her time off in the summer months, she enjoyed teaching her children, and most of
the neighborhood children, to swim and dive.
After the family acquired a piano,
Ginny taught young and old how to play. Ginny had a love for keeping in touch with
people. She valued and took great joy in her friends. Ginny loved writing long letters
or sending beautiful cards and exchanging pictures with friends, schoolmates, former
neighbors and of course, her family. Names, dates, places and event, her memory
of these were sharp all her life. Ginny retired from the school district after 30
years of outstanding service in 1995.
Ginny was no stranger to tragedy. Multiple
losses plagued her throughout her life. Youngest son Teddy disappeared and was found
a month later with a gunshot wound to his head in September 1982. Oldest son Michael
lost his battle with the AIDS virus and passed in September 1990. Ginny's youngest
and beloved brother, Larry Mikesell, passed in November 1995 after suffering a heart
attack while driving Interstate 235 in Des Moines. Husband Ted passed in September
2003 of a heart attack at the family home. Ginny's sister-in-law Martha (Andrews)
Mikesell passed in 2005 from a head injury after falling in her home.
Ginny loved
participating as a doting grandmother to her grandsons Wyatt and Ryan. She shared
memories and stories of her past in Knoxville, leaving them a rich legacy. Virginia
(Mikesell) Parker had RESLILIENCE, a much underrated virtue. She left the world
a better place and she lived a life of purpose.
I've heard it said that when we
are ready to leave this Earth, that someone we know will be there to help us over
the bridge toward eternal life. I know that when my time comes, if I see my mom
on the bridge or even swimming beneath it, that I will have made it to the right
place.