Inez M. Parker, age 91, passed away peacefully at her home on Dec. 10, 2024. Her husband of 69 years, Robert R. Parker, Sr. (Bob), and their four children, Bobby, Stephen, Jonathan and Becky (Kidd), were with her.
Born July 11, 1933, Inez enjoyed and forever treasured her hometown life in Sharon Springs, NY. Her parents, Myron and Beatrice (Ullman) Mallery, had a rich family history there dating back to the 1760’s.
In 1954 Inez graduated from New York University (Albany) with a BS in Mathematics. While teaching in Schenectady she met and fell in love with a summer intern from Mississippi at a church picnic; on November 25, 1955 she married Bob Parker.
Five years and four babies later the Parkers moved to Huntsville, AL to join the expanding space program and defense businesses around it. Four young children sidelined a professional teaching career. Early Christmascards show all four children with matching pajamas Inez sewed from the same roll of fabric. It would be one of many examples of ingenuity, resourcefulness, frugality and creativity that would follow her through motherhood.
Manners mattered! “Please”, “Thankyou”, “Sir”, “Ma’am”… all were required under her watchful eye. This disciplinarian, however, could quickly fold for a cut finger, a baby bird or a scared puppy.
Inez finally rejoined the workforce in 1968 as a Mathematics teacher at Randolph School. Organization skills were needed to balance school, sports and activity responsibilities. Monthly meal schedules on the refrigerator, individual laundry baskets, wash-your-plate policies, dedicated bicycles, rotating carpool schedules…
Child supervision was important! All the Parker children had to have some sports or other activity after school. The laundry list seemed endless: every sport imaginable, guitar, piano, drums, youth choir, paper routes, yard service, telephone book deliveries, reading time, art class, scouts, camping… Each one required scheduling, transportation and often parent participation. And no TV on school nights!
Above all else, Inez made childhood special. Birthdays and holidays were festive occasions, ones that created lifetime memories. Grown neighborhood kids still remember Inez’s traditional Christmas morning homemade donut deliveries.
Great meals bring families together. Inez was a superb cook who everyone appreciated. Homeade bread and rolls from custom ground flour, pies and cakes, fresh garden vegetables…. Some neighborhood kids were known to look at the refrigerator menu just to show up on those certain evenings. Her kitchen was open to friends and neighbors, even anti-poverty Vista students; anyone who needed company and a warm heartfelt flavorful meal was welcomed.
An avid reader of history and politics, and daughter of depression era parents, Inez had an informed sense of justice, kindness and responsibility to others that she relied on to navigate the 60’s and 70’s. She believed in civil rights for all and opposed the Vietnam War.
Professionally, Inez would go on to take post graduate mathematics and computer science courses at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and the University of Bu Ư alo.
She would be employed by Boeing and Dynetics to design, code and debug launch system simulations. The Army Missile Command and NASA contracted with her on system performance matters. Inez would finally return to and retire from high school classrooms teaching mathematics at Huntsville and then Buckhorn High Schools. She enjoyed students and would tutor and mentor them at any opportunity.
In retirement Inez found joy in the lives of her children, her 9 grandchildren, her 9 great grandchildren and one great, great grandchild. Family vacations meant a lot to her. Inez was known to travel great distances to watch a sporting or concert event. At the Church of the Nativity she continued her mother’s tradition of knitting for people in need: blankets and hats for cancer patients and premature babies. It was just one more example of her kindness and attention to the needs of others.
Care for the environment mattered to Inez since childhood. Protecting wildflowers, filling birdfeeders, observing dogwood blooms, going for a hike; retirement allowed Inez to enjoy her communion with and care for nature. Loving wife and mother, close family, loyal friendship, happiness, honesty, hard work and a faith in what you do and stand for is the legacy Inez Parker left with those who knew her best. God bless her soul.
