Emogene "Jean" Brown Parker

Emogene “Jean” Brown Parker, age 95, was born in Middleton, Tennessee, on Monday, August 13, 1928, and entered LIFE on May 25, 2024. Jean’s strength and integrity were developed through being raised on a farm with eleven brothers and sisters, just one year before the Great Depression, which lasted the first decade of her life. After the war she met and married the love of her life, Noel Parker, from Whiteville, Tennessee, with whom she enjoyed 70 years of marriage, until Noel’s passing in 2019. Both of them completed their education while rearing three children. Jean enrolled in the University of Alabama when her youngest son entered first grade. As Noel’s career path moved the family from Huntsville to Athens, to Houston, and to Dallas she moved from college to college, finally completing her Bachelor’s Degree in Education (with a minor in speech and drama) at the University of Houston. While living in Dallas, she completed her Master’s Degree in Education with a Reading Specialist Certification. She continued her post graduate work receiving an Endorsement for Educational/Reading Supervision. Jean shared her education and reading specialties with the churches where she served, traveling to several states to present seminars and workshops to aid churches in developing educational curricula and in teacher-training. She spent 22 years in education, including two years at Dallas Christian Schools (while her children were there) and 20 years in the Mesquite Independent School System, with 10 years in the classroom and 10 years as their Title One Instructional Supervisor. Jean was an active member of Delta Kappa Gamma, serving as president of the Delta Rho chapter from 1980-84. She was also a member of the State Music Committee from 1982-84. Her poetry was published in the Delta Kappa Gamma Society Bulletin. After two years of further study, she received a diploma from the Institute of Children’s Literature in 1984. Jean loved entertaining and sharing her hospitality with others, especially her church family. She also enjoyed singing and played the piano by ear. Jean’s greatest joys and her greatest sense of success were her service to God, her husband of seventy years and her three faithful children. Jean Parker is survived by three children, Jerry of Tyler, Texas; Jeanese and Bob Bailey of Porter, Texas; Stephen and Charlotte Parker, of Fort Gibson, Oklahoma; seven grandchildren, Jason Parker, Brandon Parker and wife, Cara; Chad Bailey and wife, Katie; Tyler Bailey and wife, Ruth Ann; Brent Bailey and Steve Slagg; Andrea Hancock and husband, Tyler; Travis Parker and wife, Natalie; great-grandchildren, Olivia and Owen Parker; Lillian, Preston and Brayden Parker; Ella, Spencer, and Ian Bailey; Hannah, Harper, and Emma Bailey; Canan Parker, Callahan Hancock, and Elliott and Blakely Parker. The family would like to extend our deepest appreciation to all of the care providers at Garden Estates and Oak Hills Terrace Memory Care for all of the loving and attentive safekeeping you provided for our mother and grandmother. Jean Parker’s memorial service will take place on Saturday, June 1, at 10:00 AM, at Stewart Family Funeral Home, 7525 Old Jacksonville Highway in Tyler.

Emogene "Jean" Brown Parker

August 13, 1928 - May 25, 2024