Mildred Jayne Parker

Mrs. Mildred Jayne Parker, 93, passed away Jan. 28, 2012, and joined the love of her life, John Parker Jr., who died in 1965 after an automobile accident.

In accordance with Mildred's request, there will be no funeral service. At a surprise party on her 75th birthday, she thanked her children and told them her wishes. "This is my celebration," she said.

Mildred will be missed by her family and friends. She will be interred next to her husband in Ward Cemetery in Verona.

Mildred was born in Peoria, Ill., on July 3, 1918, a daughter of Sylvan and Kate Strum. Mildred's family lived for many years in Verona, Ill., where her father was a coal miner and her mother was a nurse. Some things she enjoyed while growing up in Verona were going to silent movies with her dad and going to dances with her cousins and friends.

When she was a teenager, she was part of a tap dancing team that performed at the dedication of the original Morris Bridge and the opening of Gebhard Woods State Park. She graduated from Mazon High School in 1936.

She and John were married in 1939 at the Little Brown Church in Nashua, Iowa. They were longtime residents of Mazon, Ill., until they sold their home in 1961 and moved to Scottsdale, Ariz. Eventually, they returned to Illinois and owned a home in Morris.

Besides her parents and husband, Mildred was preceded in death by a daughter, Cory Lynn Parker; two brothers, Bill and Jack Strum; and a sister, Viola Carlon.

She is survived by two sons, Dick Parker and his wife, Jean, of Morris, and Jeff Parker of Parker, Colo.; three daughters, Judith Rastl and her husband, John, of Portland, Maine, Janice Perry and her husband, Chuck, of Morris, and Diane McCarter of Phoenix, Ariz; eight grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

Memorial gifts may be made in Mildred's name to Joliet Area Community Hospice, 250 Water Stone Circle, Joliet, IL 60431.

Arrangements have been entrusted to Fred C. Dames Funeral Home, 1201 West U.S. 6, at Deerpath Dr., Morris. For additional information, call the funeral home at (815) 942-5040 or log onto www.fredcdames.com.