"Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur/ Happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr purr purr."
Danny was a big fan of The Big Bang Theory, the Zane Grey western novels series, Highway to Heaven, cowboy historical locations, and the SyFy Channel. Blue was definitely his color. His humor, a bit impish.
Rest in Peace.
Danny Parker died in his sleep sometime early Sunday morning, July 6, 2025 in Mound City, Mo., at the home of his sister Carol Sue Ward, where he had lived in her hospitality and care since 2018. He had been dealing for years with diabetes and end-stage renal disease, and recently spent several weeks at a skilled care facility to receive more intense treatment. He was 67.
Born April 17, 1958, at the newly opened North Kansas City (Mo.) Hospital, Danny was among the first babies delivered there, missing out on the first newborn prize package by just a week or so. The extended family lived in nearby Parkville and Riverside, Mo., coming to that area in the early 1940s to pursue better work opportunities. His father worked for an asphalt roofing manufacturer and later a rock quarry. His mom was a clerk in the home goods department at Woolworth’s.
In 1959, she moved back to her hometown of Athelstan, in southwest Iowa, with baby Danny and his sisters Carol Sue and Norma Ruth. Their dad died in early 1963 at the state hospital in St. Joseph, Mo.
Danny attended elementary school in nearby Blockton and Conway, Iowa, and the Bedford Community High School. He got a start in construction and excavation work on crews with his brother, Edward Phillip “Bud” Parker, 17 years his elder. Over the years Danny also worked with brother-in-law Bill Clark along with several nephews and cousins who were close to him in age.
Those work projects took him on short-term stays in Kansas, Colorado, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Tennessee. He helped in laying both natural gas pipelines and fiber-optic cable. Eventually he also supervised crews, certified fittings safety compliance, and transported heavy equipment between job sites. Work injuries and reliance on fast food on the road contributed to later health issues.
Between projects, he was usually back on an acreage near Adrian, Mo., where he and his mom had moved in the 1980s, and later other family members followed. That farm became a drawing place for his eldest sister Fern, her son Sam and daughter Debbie, and Debbie’s daughter Mandy. Debbie died in 1994; his mom in late 1995; sister Fern in 1999; sister Ann in 2008; and niece Mandy in 2019.
Around 2014, Danny moved into town to help June Koger, an aunt of Ann’s husband, Jim. It was June and her late husband, Wilmer who had sold Danny their farm when they retired to town. Wilmer died in late 1996, and June in 2016.
Among those mourning Danny are his sisters, Carol Sue Ward of Mound City, Mo. and Norma Ruth Parker Wilson of Eugene, Ore.; his sister-in-law, Glenda Parker of Holly Springs, Miss. (wife of his brother, Bud, who died in 2022); and nieces and nephews, who were more like siblings, Billy Gene Clark and Dave Clark of Adrian, Mo., and Brenda Clark Taylor of Esbon, Kan.
To others in the family, he was Uncle Danny. So much so, Glenda notes, that’s what she and her daughters and their families and even some of the neighbors all called him. He was Uncle, too, to Jimmy Dean Parker, Angela Parker Flores, her daughters Amber, Courtney, Kristina, Ashley and especially her son Alex; to Sam Clark of Alaska; Becky Bryant, of Excelsior Springs, Mo., and Donnie Bryant of Kentucky; Anthony Parker, Mound City, Mo., and Lisa, Jason and Elizabeth Wilson.
Though Danny never married, he doted on and was sometimes a father figure to several of his great nieces and nephews: Michael Taylor of Happy Acres, Kan., Kaitlyn Bryant and Amber Sutton of LaGrange, Ky.; Chelsie and Chip Snow of Excelsior Springs, Mo.; and Mandy Clark and her children River Clark, and Harry and Vivian Greer, of Adrian, Mo.
Danny will be missed but definitely not begrudged relief from pain and fatigue, or the homegoing to all the loved ones who have gone before.
Special thanks to …
Eric Chamberlain of Chamberlain Funeral Home and Sgt. Jonathan Black of the Holt County Sheriff’s Department for their kindness.
The many doctors, nurses and technicians at Mosaic Life Care and DaVita Dialysis in St. Joseph, Mo., for their skill and caring.
And the moral support and friendship of long-time neighbor Brenda Ryan and co-workers Noah Jones and Nancy Reynolds, who introduced Danny to Pillsbury Crescent Rolls just a few Thanksgivings ago.
Celebration of Life arrangements are pending, though his final resting place will be at the Athelstan, Iowa, Cemetery, near his parents, Vivian Arnold Parker and Edward Howard Parker. His sister, Ann Bryant, and her husband, Jim, are buried there also.
Friends & Family multiply the joy & divide the grief.
