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Obituaries & Online MemorialsDes Moines Register Online Obituary
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Virginia M. Parmenter | Visitation:
Sunday, July 26, 2009
3:00 PM until 5:00 PM
Bacon Funeral Home
422 First Street
Maxwell, IA 50161
Service:
Monday, July 27, 2009
1:30 PM
Bacon Funeral Home
422 First Street
Maxwell, IA 50161
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| | | It is with much sadness that I am telling you of the unexpected death of Virginia May Parmenter on Wednesday, July 22, 2009 at 1:35 AM at Northeast Regional Hospital in Kirksville, MO.
Virginia May (Dunlap) Parmenter was born on May 24, 1919 to George Harland and Susan Katherine (Gifford) Dunlap near Farrar, IA. She was the second of four children. Virginia’s older sister was Helen Louise (Dunlap) Huggins – husband Harold Glen Huggins. Her younger sister was Mildred Jean (Dunlap) Sullivan-husband Thomas Lowell Sullivan. Her brother was George Lowell Dunlap – wives Lillian Clarissa “Pat” (Defoe) Dunlap and Ruby (Moore-Starchman) Dunlap.
Virginia was a member of the Farrar Church. She graduated from Farrar High School. She married Earl M. Parmenter on May 25, 1937 in Princeton, IL. To this union were three children – Jill Elaine (Parmenter) Smith-husband Leslie Smith; Janean Iona (Parmenter) Faux-husband Thomas Faux, and Kevin G. Parmenter-wife Ardrae (Harvey) Parmenter.
Virginia worked on the farm with Earl for many years. After they left the farm, they lived in Iowa Center, Collins, Des Moines and Altoona where she was a homemaker-caring for the children, enjoying sewing, crocheting, card playing and gardening. She was an avid reader. Flowers were her passion – iris and day lilies seemed to be her favorite but anything that was not a weed was allowed to grow in her many flowerbeds. Virginia became a member of the Altoona Methodist Church. After moving to Tucson, AZ, she joined Christ Methodist Church where she and Earl served as church treasurer for many years. After 8 years in Arizona the family returned to Des Moines, IA where Virginia started working for the State of Iowa. She retired from this position after many years of service. During retirement Virginia and Earl enjoyed going to garage sales and visiting with family and friends. They spent many hours visiting cemeteries collecting dates from tombstones as part of the extensive genealogy work they did. It was at this time that Virginia became interested in the use of the computer. With her genealogy work she had over 10,000 names of family members on her computer program. She could tell you names and who their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were. She had proved she had lineage to the Mayflower. She proved Earl had a Revolutionary War relative thus allowing the girls to join Daughters of American Revolution and Kevin to join Sons of American Revolution. Her interest in the computer was not just limited to genealogy. She spent hours playing computer games. Many a time she would doze off sitting at the computer playing a game!
Virginia truly had a love for collecting “things”. Some of her collections included Frankoma Pottery, rulers, thimbles, perpetual calendars, and cow creamers, but dolls and Mickey Mouse became her largest collections. It was easy to get a gift for Virginia – find a new Mickey Mouse item or a doll. Eventually it became difficult to find a Mickey that she didn’t already have on display. Of course, a box of candy was a favorite too.
After Earl’s death in 1992, Virginia remained at the home where she and Earl had lived for 42 years. She continued to feed the birds and work in her multiple flower beds. In 2006, Virginia moved to rural New Boston, MO, living in a new mobile home set on the farm of daughter and son-in-law, Janean and Tom Faux. It was just 10 steps across her porch to their deck. Janean had spent many hours digging flowers from the Des Moines flower beds to move to Missouri. Virginia’s home was surrounded by her “own” flowers. There were flower beds in the yard as well for her to look at. She spent hours sitting on the front porch watching the hordes of humming birds being fed and feeding on nectar from her flowers. She could spot a weed at 10’ for Janean to pull. Virginia’s sense of humor and love of life made making new friends very easy. Two of her favorite things to do, after moving to Missouri, were going to the “Just for You” Beauty Shop to get her hair washed and listen to the local gossip, and eating out at Jim Bob’s on Friday nights. The waitresses knew she would always have coffee and the salad bar. Virginia enjoyed visiting with friends who stopped by frequently to see her, receiving letters from family members and friends as well as receiving a phone call from a family member.
Although Virginia had polio at 15 months of age, she had relatively good health throughout her life. She was a lover of family, friends and nature. She was so proud of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Virginia is survived by her children-Jill and husband Les (of Corning, CA), Janean and husband Tom (of New Boston, MO) and Kevin and wife Ardrae (of Urbandale, IA); grandchildren-Suzanne (Smith) Schulze and husband Rich (of Carson City, NV), Laura (Smith) Rosenquist and husband Erik (of Los Gatos, CA), Brenton Parmenter and Joshua Parmenter (both of Ames, IA), Tom Faux, Jr. and wife Kim (of Menlo, IA); great-grandchildren Marin and Anders Rosenquist, Elizabeth and Kaitlin Schulze, and Nicole, Konner and Alexus Faux. She has a multitude of nieces and nephews, cousins other relatives and friends who will also miss her.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Earl on December 1, 1992; one brother: George “Pete” Dunlap; and two sisters: Helen Huggins and Mildred Sullivan.
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