ADDIE RUTH FOX PARKER CELEBRATES HER 100TH BIRTHDAY!
On Saturday, December 16, 2017, Mrs. Addie Ruth Fox Parker celebrated her 100th birthday at a brunch at the Friendship-West Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas.
Mrs. Parker was born on December 14, 1917, to an African-American family in Jacksonville (Calhoun County), Alabama. Having been raised in her hometown of Jacksonville, Alabama, she also has lived in Anniston, Montgomery and Birmingham, Alabama, as well as in Fort Worth, Dallas and DeSoto, Texas. She has been a Texas resident since 1972 and is a member of the Friendship-West Baptist Church.
She retired from a decades-long elementary school teaching career, having taught in Alabama and Texas. While living in Montgomery and Birmingham, Alabama in the late 1950s and 1960s, she served in the Alabama Civil Rights Movement as a dedicated and hard-working confidante, partner, participant, and supporter of her husband – Rev. Joseph C. Parker, Sr. – who was a founding pastor, servant, racial justice advocate, and leader of the Alabama Civil Rights Movement, starting in 1955 with his involvement in the Montgomery Bus Boycott; Montgomery Improvement Association; Montgomery Inter-denominational Ministerial Alliance (Secretary); NAACP; Selma to Montgomery Marches; the Birmingham civil rights protests; and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and alongside her husband’s Morehouse college friend, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, and Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, Sr. and his wife, Juanita Jones Abernathy.
Mrs. Parker has five children: Marvice J. Sims, Rev. Dr. Joseph C. Parker, Jr., Esq., Gail B. Parker, Lynne N. Wheelock, and Linda A. Zanders. She also has five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Mrs. Parker’s family and friends believe these words have contributed to her successful life and career – character: strong Christian faith, integrity, commitment, and action; personality: warm, compassionate, giving, loving, determined spirit, lively, and humorous; and intelligence: has had and still possesses a keen mind.
