Nansemond County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Parker, Dr. Richard E., 1905 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/vafiles.htm ************************************************ DR. RICHARD E. PARKER DEATH OF DR. R.E. PARKER The passing of Dr. Richard E. Parker was marked with the most profound sorrow. Since he was stricken with pneumonia about six days prior to his death on last Monday morning until the end, there was a constant enquiry about his condition by the passing throng upon the streets and numbers of anxious folk and friends calling at the residence. When the news of his departure was announced early Monday morning, a gloom of sorrow pervaded the whole town, and in the face of many could be seen plainly written the expression of the deepest and most profound sorrow. Dr. Parker died at 3:15 o’clock Monday morning at his residence on Sycamore Street, aged 74 years, after the most intense physical suffering. His condition grew extremely critical on Saturday evening, from which time there was not a moment but that some anxious one was at his bedside to watch every movement and contribute to his every want. All day Sunday anxious and prayerful relatives, physicians and friends so sweetly and tenderly watched - hoping, praying that the rapidly approaching end could be made to linger for just a few more passing years, but the death watch had been set and on it inscribed, "in at this gate none pass the vigilance here placed." Dr. Parker had remarked on more than one occasion that if pneumonia should seize upon him, he would not be able to survive it and that a week would not be able to survive it and that a week would be as long as he could combat the disease. From the first he said that there was no use to administer medicine and very little he would take, and most of that he did take was of his own suggestion. His mind was extremely bright and active during his sickness, and even in his greatest extremities he was conscious of what was going on about him. The skillfulness of Dr. Parker as a physician was not only attested to by his fellow physicians but his enviable success in treating and relieving some of the most difficult cases in this section of the country was the greatest testation of his skill. Fifty-two years as a practicing physician in country and town had given him not only a varied and very useful experience, but also he had come in contact with more people than possibly any man in Suffolk and was possibly more widely known. He was poplar with those whom he served and will be greatly missed by then. He was a native of Gates County, North Carolina, from which county he moved to Suffolk eighteen years ago. During his long and active life as a physician, he had amassed a comfortable estate - not by being hard and oppressive to those for whom he labored, for on the contrary he was lenient, kind and forbearing to those who owed him money - but by saving and investing his money in securities and property that were safe and from which he derived considerable revenue outside of his practice. Dr. Parker had his faults, and who, pray, hasn’t faults of some kind. We all have our little idiosyncrasies - some more peculiar than others - and too often we judge of character by them, when it is not the peculiarities that form the character of the individual but the principles and motives that control the life. The writer of this article feels peculiarly sad in this dispensation of God’s providence, and we pause to keep back the tears that would trace their furrows down the cheek, for we have lost a neighbor and a friend in whose integrity, honesty, straightforwardness and manliness we have had the utmost and most confiding confidence. In our home as a physician he was as tender as a woman, interested to the last degree in the welfare of our sick, even when not attending them himself; as neighbor always kind and obliging, and as a friend, in our social chats in his office (we shall never forget them), he was always open and frank, pleasant and entertaining and to a marked degree appreciative of our visits. He always impressed us as being a man true to his friends, honest in his convictions, frank and decisive in his sayings, and honest and square in his dealings. Deceit lurked not in his frame. He may have had his human errors, his weaknesses, his frailties, for they are incident to our frame, but he had as an offset for each frailty one good and prominent virtue. Against any frailty stands his devotion to friends and his love of truth which made his promise as sacred as his oath of bond. The deceased leaves a widow, who was Miss Sallie Franklin; four daughters, Mrs. George C. Brooks, of Sunbury, N.C.; Mrs. Frank Nicholson, of Norfolk, and Mrs. B.L. Saunders and Miss Minnie Parker, of Suffolk; one son, Mr. Junius T. Parker, of Suffolk, and one sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Milteer, of Crittenden. The funeral services were conducted from the residence Tuesday afternoon at 2:30 o’clock by Dr. W.W. Staley, of the Christian Church, assisted by Dr. J.B. Taylor, of the Baptist Church, and Rev. J. Wilbur Shipley, of the Presbyterian Church. The pallbearers were as follows: Active - Drs. R.H. Pretlow, J.E. Rawles, E.H. Hart, C.J. Bradshaw, J.C. Riddick, H.W. Campbell, J.P. Whedbee, G.F. Lane. Honorary - Drs. J.M. Gibson, W.T. Jordan, J.E. Phillips, W.W. Murray, Joseph P. Hall, A.W. Eley, W.A. Almond and G.W. Nurney, E.E. Holland, Otis Smith and S.E. Everett. Owing to sickness some doctors in the county who had been selected as pallbearers were unable to attend, hence the selection of a few personal friends outside of the fraternity. Peace to his ashes, peace to his soul, honor for his memory and gratitude for the long and useful service in relieving humanity and bringing hope and peace to homes upon which the blight of disease rested. It is ever so, "The air is full of farewells to the dying and mournings for the dead." The soul of Dr. Parker has changed its residence. It lingers in the vast realm of the eternal, where we, who honor him and revere his memory, must shortly wend our way. Such tender regard, such lovely expressions of sweetest memory were the flowers as one design after another was tenderly placed by loving hands upon the bier of their departed friend, and attached thereto little white cards bearing the names of those who held him in such loving remembrance, but there were hundreds to whom he had brought relief and been a ministration of mercy who could bring no flowers, but better still - a loving, sympathizing and throbbing heart where his memory was indelibly impressed and will live long after the flowers fade. Faithful physician, honest citizen, true friends, rest at last. Sleep on. Dr. Richard E. PARKER, b. Gates Co., NC, d. 20 Feb 1905, at home, Suffolk, age 74, interred in Cedar Hill Cemetery (Block A, Lot 24*), Suffolk, 21 Feb 1905, donated obit, publication unknown *Cedar Hill list, an extension of the Southampton County Historical Society {SCHS} Cemetery Project: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/nansemond/cemeteries/cedar_p.txt Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Mrs. Bruce Saunders (bs4403@verizon.net), and re-formatted by File Manager. file at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/nansemond/obits/p626r2ob.txt