Edna Marie Parker

Edna with her mom

Edna Marie Parker was born Edna Marie Potts on July 5, 1916, in Grayson County, Texas, near the towns of Sadler and Pottsboro. This was cattle country located in a rural part of Texas near the Red River. Her mother Ollie Potts and father William Potts were part of the Potts family, which owned vast acres of ranch land in the northern Texas prairie. In 1876 the Potts family had donated a portion of their land for a town and railroad right-of-way, so the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad would extend its tracks westward from Denison to their settlement. Because of the family’s generosity, the railroad came and the town was named Pottsbourgh, later becoming Pottsboro, Texas.

While growing up as a young child, Edna enjoyed the beauty of the plains and the rugged life of raising cattle. After her parents divorced, Edna moved with her mother to live on the Edwards Ranch. Edna learned how to sew using a sewing treadle while her mother milked the cows and helped operate the ranch. Edna had many good memories from her life on the ranch, which included watching cattle drives. There were some bad memories also, which included cross burnings and hooded Ku Klux Klan members invading the ranch property.

When Edna was seven her mother remarried, and she became the stepdaughter of an Irish cattle driver. Her mother’s marriage also brought happiness to Edna, as she now had a new half-sister and half-brother. Unfortunately, another half-sister died in infancy. As she grew older, a new joy occurred when she accompanied her mother on wagon rides to church meetings. There she listened to her mother sing and play the piano for the congregation. She also developed a spirituality which led to a lifelong appreciation for goodness and forgiveness.

When it was time to start school, her family moved north to the town of Ardmore, Oklahoma, staying with her mom’s family. When she was not attending school, Edna would occasionally ride with Grandpa Hale, who was a circuit minister. They would go to country gatherings, where on Sundays he would preach to the small crowds. Edna enjoyed her trips with her grandfather as he would embellish his bible stories, making them exciting for the church crowds and his attentive granddaughter. Edna remembered returning home from the church meetings holding a chicken or BBQ as payment for the preaching that Sunday.

Edna’s mother remarried when Edna was eleven, and she now had four more step-brothers and step-sisters to add to her growing family. Because her mother had contracted tuberculosis, Edna had to help raise the younger children. A growing maturity developed into her first real job. When sixteen, Edna started her professional career, opening up a beauty salon, “Eddie’s Beauty Shoppe,” in a friend’s living room. It was 1932, and America was still suffering from the Great Depression. Money was short as reflected in her charging only 25 cents for a haircut and 50 cents for a facial.

Edna and John in retirement