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For more than two hours, George Parker sat in his chair in the second-floor party room of The Terrace apartments and greeted a parade of friends and relatives bidding him hello and goodbye on his 86th birthday.
They offered hugs, handshakes and favorite stories of their old friend, who piloted a B-26 Marauder bomber in World War II and saw action on D-Day. For many, it might have been the last chance to savor their moments and memories with Parker, who was diagnosed a few weeks ago with pancreatic cancer. The cancer has spread to his lungs and liver, and the former state legislator has been told he has but a few more weeks to spend time with friends.
“Mom and Dad believe in the celebration of life, and we decided, ‘Why wait until he’s d
Jeannine Stuart and Missouri Federation President Tom Wilsdon came from St. Louis |
ead?’ ” said Peggy Parker, the eldest daughter who is visiting from Alexandria, Va. The family decided to have “a celebration of life while he’s still alive,” she said.
Former fellow pilots and politicians past and present stopped at the senior citizens’ residence yesterday, including state Rep. Kurt Schaefer and former state Rep. Ed Robb.
Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder telephoned Parker and wished him well. Parker also received from Kinder a declaration thanking him for all his work for the Republican Party and for founding the Pachyderm Clubs.
In 1967, after becoming the first Republican to win a Boone County election
Nadine Thurman and her sister from Shelbina came to honor George |
since before the Civil War, Parker began meeting with a group of friends for lunch on Fridays. “Noon at the Boone,” they called their informal meetings at the former Boone Tavern and hotel.
From there, Parker started the Pachyderms, clubs meant to get more people interested in government. “His goal was to have a club that would expose people to politics that had never before exposed before,” Peggy Parker said.
These days, some 64 Pachyderm Clubs are established in 16 states.
Parker’s specialty, though, has been storytelling. He hushed those celebrating his birthday and made an announcement: “I wanted to tell you how I met Henry Liu,” he said.
More than 40 years earlier, Parker and Liu were both attending Unitarian Universalist Church in Columbia. Parker asked Liu whether he’d ever been to China, and Liu, who was born in Beijing, said yes. Parker asked: Where in China? After learning Liu had lived five years in Chengdu, Parker retrieved a photo of himself and Liu’s father in Chengdu, where Parker had been stationed in the Air Force working with the Chinese Air Force Technical School.
Since that church meeting, the Parkers with Lieu and his wife, Susie, have been having dinner frequently.
“He loves to tell that story to everybody,” Henry Liu said later.
In the twilight of his life, Parker’s mind remains sharp. He freely takes the opportunity to offer his opinion on the lack of quality statesmen in the United States. Why would the best minds become politicians when people, as a nation, refer to longtime government workers as bureaucrats? he asked.
He also reflected on his 86 years. “The reason things happen is because you have a strong desire to make that happen,” he said. “I tried to convey the idea that we’re all equal and we’re all responsible for the government.”
