Mildred Lee Parks

Millie was born September 3, 1935 to R. L. and Mabel Hart in Memphis. She graduated from Memphis Tech High School in 1954 and married her late husband, Jack, in August 1955 in Memphis. The couple moved often around the mid-south including Wynne, AR; then Greenville, MS. Following a five year stay in Greenville, they moved with their two sons across the Mississippi River to West Helena, AR where they resided until 1972. The family moved north to Harrison, AR where Millie began her teaching career at Skyline Elementary School as a teacher's aide. In 1977, Millie embarked on a journey to get her Bachelor of Education degree from College of the Ozarks in Hollister, MO. She would carpool for the 45-minute drive from Harrison to her evening classes for four years, earning her degree and teaching certificate in 1981. Soon after earning her degree, Millie and Jack moved to Searcy, AR where she began teaching elementary school full-time. Millie taught in the public school system in Searcy for almost 20 years, before she and Jack moved again-this time to Tulsa, where she taught for only a few years in Tulsa public schools before retiring. Her love of education translated into keeping her 3 granddaughters extremely busy when she would come to stay. The foursome would spend most of their time together being creative with whatever activity "Gran" (as she was known by the girls) could dream up-mostly being outside. Many quality characteristics of Millie have obviously passed on to her grandchildren over the years. Hayley (the oldest of the trio) absorbed Gran's love for family, creativity and care for others that carry on today. Hayley's house is always decorated expertly for Christmas and family birthdays-just as Millie would decorate the front display windows for Jack's retail stores for upcoming holidays. Gran would always faithfully send cards to the girls for any holiday, including a 'little something for their purse'. Hayley still has most of these cards, and probably most of the cash! Millie's love for education was easily transferred to the middle granddaughter Lindsay who insisted one year that Santa's priority item for Lindasy was an overhead projector. Not a toy one, but one like Gran used in class. Lindsay loved playing school with the projector and was well onto a teaching career like Millie, but that came to a quick halt when Lindsay decided she didn't like small children! Millie also had a competitive side that went unnoticed by many, but picked up by the youngest granddaughter, Kelsey. During any board game, card game or challenge of any type, both Millie and Kelsey loved the competition and were (and are) determined to do whatever they could to assure victory. Her son, Mel experienced this firsthand before his 7th grade basketball tryouts. Both parents had warned him of the amount of running that was inherent to basketball. Seizing on that opportunity, Millie challenged Mel to a race around the house in West Helena. Mel, confident of an easy victory, readily accepted the challenge only to find out his mom was faster around the outside loop than him! The pair never raced again, and this dark secret was never mentioned until today! While on the topic of sports, Millie loved her some St Louis Cardinal baseball. Growing up with enough siblings to field their own baseball team, she was consistently either watching or listening to Cardinal baseball. She was probably influenced by the success of fellow Memphian Tim McCarver's career with St Louis and the proximity to Memphis. In fact, in 1967, McCarver partnered with long time Memphis restaurant owner 'Big John' Grisanti to open 'McCarver and Grisanti's' Italian restaurant. The family tie here is that Millie's brother worked for the pair and would bring home various entrees from work on special occasions. Regarding food, one of Millie's attributes that was thankfully not passed on to her granddaughters or daughter-in-law Caren, was Millie's cooking rule. If the dish had more than 5 ingredients, it took too much time to prepare, and she wasn't going to allow that 6th ingredient to stand in the way of dinner. We are all very thankful that one didn't resonate with any family members!

Mildred Lee Parks

September 3, 1935 - January 23, 2025