Claudia Mikell Parks

Claudia peacefully passed away with her soulmate of 67 years William “Bill” Parks by her side, on May 15, 2024. Born in November of 1936 to Morgan Mikell and Mae Mikell she is survived by her 2 daughters, Marian and Jana, 3 grandchildren, Rachel, Alex and Morgan, one great grandchild, Henry and her Brother, David.

Claudia, my mother, lived an amazingly full life, filled with love, compassion, service, faith and friendship.

Claudia and Bill first met at Seacrest High School where they both played the Clarinet in the school band. As the story goes, Bill was the band captain and Claudia “pretended” to play the Clarinet in order to get close to Bill. Claudia always said “she knew she was going to marry Bill, but she just had to get his attention”. Her creative mind gave her the idea to stick bubble gum in his hair to get his attention, and it worked. They have been stuck together ever since.

Claudia’s passion for service pushed her to attended nursing school in New Orleans at Southern Baptist Hospital. Back then nurses wore nurses’ caps, uniform dresses and matching wool caps. She earned a reputation for working hard and playing hard. She loved baseball and football and actually played until she injured her knee and had to have surgery. But of course, this didn’t stop her from graduating right on time alongside so many of her friends from nursing school who became lifelong friends.

After marrying Bill in Delray Beach, FL in 1957, they moved to Birmingham, AL and ultimately ended up planting roots in East Point, GA where she began working for Dr. Cobb in his private practice. She always spoke of Dr. Cobb fondly and especially loved to regale the fact that Dr. Cobb was never far from a cigarette and always liked to smoke during his examinations. How things have changed. She always credited Dr. Cobb with teaching her so much not just about medicine, but about life, and as she describes it, she “saw everything you could imagine and more.”

During their time in Birmingham, Bill was drafted by the Army where he spent 2 years honorably serving his country. Bill had a very unique skill set when it came to computers and was one of only a few people in the country who was trained to work with a particular type of computer the Army had at that time. After being discharged, they bought their first family home in East Point, GA on Harbin Road (the house is still there and looks pretty much the same as it did 60 years ago). After his service, Bill went on to work at IBM and Claudia continued to work with Dr. Cobb, and with that stability they decided it was time to have children.

Marian Lynette was born in January of 1962, however, a few months before that, Bill was drafted a second time by the Army and Claudia never forgave President Kennedy. Bill’s unique skill with computers was needed again, and there was literally “no one else” currently in the Army or that could be drafted that could do what he did. This of course did not go over well with Momma and at one point she threatened Bill’s Commanding Officer that she was “going to just shoot Bill in the foot to keep him from going”. A few days later, the nice men from Army paid her a polite visit at home but in the end did not arrest her.

Bills second tour of duty proved to be an incredibly difficult time financially for the young newlyweds since nurses were not paid well in those days. She would often say that “Garbage men made more money than she did as a nurse”. The Army of course did not pay a living wage either and Claudia remembers so many times when she had only $0.25 cents in her wallet and it was only Tuesday. Perseverance coupled with her deep faith and friends kept her going until Bill was discharged from the Army after a year and was finally able to return to work at IBM.

After things began to get back to normal it was time for their well-planned second child, Jana Lynn, who was also born in the month of January 1964. Jana was initially scheduled to be born on the same day as her sister Marian, January 12th but Jana decided to come a bit early on January 1st, 1964. Claudia insisted on not going to the hospital until after her football games were over and that was not open for discussion. This being well before the advent of DVR’s and VCRs, there was no recording that Football game for later. Bill finally convinced her to go to the hospital and per Mommas request drove her to the hospital, dropped her off and then promptly went back home. Of course, Dr. Cobb was the one delivering the baby (probably with a cigarette in his mouth) and as the baby emerged he hollered out, Claudia “you got another split tail”. Claudia however was convinced she was having a boy and had only picked out boy names, and in a panic, came up with the name Jana.

Soon after Jana’s arrival, Claudia began working in the Emergency Room at South Fulton Hospital and she would tell us the wildest stories about what she saw like the woman with roaches living in her hair bun and she taught us that riding a motorcycle was would end with your head on backwards. But she had a passion for the work and loved helping people. She was so generous with her time and became someone that people in the neighborhood looked to for help and advice on myriad topics.

Toward the end of the 60’s, Claudia began getting more involved with Women’s Club in East Point and in the church. Attending Colonial Hills Baptist and then when she moved to Cliftondale, a small community in South Fulton county, she took on leadership roles at Cliftondale Baptist Church during an almost 30-year membership. During that time, she held many positions in the church including Sunday school Teacher, Sunday School Director, and Building Committee Chairperson. She even continued to run Vacation Bible School well past the time when she had children or Grandchildren of her own that would attend.

Claudia’s involvement in Women’s Club lasted for many years and at one point she held state level office roles and was honored on many occasions for her volunteer and leadership work within the organization.

At the end of 1969, Claudia, Bill, Marian and Jana moved to their new home in Cliftondale/College Park, GA. During the 1970’s Claudia continued to work as a nurse, but focused much of her attention on her 2 small children, but still found the time and energy to begin volunteering more with the Church, women’s club and PTA. She held the office of PTA president on multiple occasions and was very involved at the State level as well. She held this role at Cliftondale Elementary School as well at Feldwood High School during her daughter’s attendance there.

During the 70’s and 80’s, it seemed as though there was not a week that passed that Claudia was not in the paper for one reason or another or that she was making sure that others were recognized for their efforts. Her involvement at the hospital, church, Women’s Club, PTA, state government and other community service opportunities was awarded when she was recognized in 1975 by the South Fulton Chamber of Commerce as Woman of the Year and then as Family of the Year.

Toward the end of the 70’s with her daughters now teenagers, Claudia decided to use her talents to do more good for the community and start a second career as a school teacher at a newly opening Vocational High School in South Fulton County after obtaining her teaching certificate from University of Georgia. This was the perfect roll for Claudia as she would be teaching Health Occupations and helping to guide and form young minds. Vocational schools at that time took students from the surrounding high schools for 3 hours in the morning and then a new set of students for 3 hours in the afternoon. High Schools would typically send any student that was pregnant or struggled in other more academic classes. Claudia warmly embraced every student and made it her mission to teach them as much as she could about heath care and prepare these students not just for a possible career in the health field but for life after high school. It was not uncommon after a student graduated that they would come back to the school to personally thank her for what she taught them. It was one of the reasons that she was awarded the South Fulton Vocational Center Teacher of the Year Award in 1982, 1989 and 1991. Of everything she did, this role and her approach to education had more impact than any of the other work she did in her life.

Claudia continued to work at the vocational school for 17 years and retired in 1996. She was there when the doors opened and there when the school closed their doors. During this time, Claudia continued to work with the PTA and grow the Cliftondale Baptist Church membership. This period of time also saw a lot of family changes as her daughters graduated from High School and College, got married, and blessed her with 3 grandchildren, Rachel, Alex and Morgan.

As Bill was already retired, travel became a big part of their lives together. China, Australia, Europe, South America and every port a cruise ship could take you was on their itinerary.

By 2005 it was time to truly retire so they moved to Blairsville, a daunting task if you knew Claudia. They found a wonderful house on top of a hill with amazing views, while at the same time providing Bill and Claudia the room to build the perfect woodshop and the perfect office for Claudia to continue writing and volunteering.

It did not take long before Claudia found her purpose in volunteering at the Union General Hospital Auxiliary, and within a year, was an officer. She became president and served several years doubling the membership by writing promotional articles in the local newspaper and by talking to anyone and everyone she met about volunteering. She became a state officer in the Council on Volunteer Services and edited and published the state newsletter, ‘The Council Courier’ until December of 2019. She also voluntarily wrote a recurring medical related article for the Union Sentinel.

Claudia joined the Golden Club Bowling League and at one point even bowled a perfect game. The team however historically came in last place but they all had fun doing it.

Bill and Claudia continued to travel around the world for the next 15 years until the emergence of Covid-19 and the destructive effects of Alzheimer’s could not be overlooked any longer.

In October of 2020, Bill and Claudia moved to Phoenix of Braselton, an independent living community to begin this new chapter of their lives together. Over the last 3 years, Claudia has slowly been ravaged by Alzheimer’s but even still, she continues to treat everyone to her infectious smile and genuinely happy outlook. She continued to bowl every Wednesday through April 2024 until she no longer had the strength, but her final game she scored a staggering 122.

On March 13, 2024, Claudia was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid leukemia (AML). If there is one silver lining of the Alzheimer’s, it is the gift she has been given of not understanding what AML is or its affects, which allowed us as a family to spend thoughtful and meaningful time with her.

Claudia was larger than life to me. She was an amazing soul that embodied everything it means to be a great mom, friend, wife, daughter, nurse, teacher, advocate, volunteer and human being. She always kept us entertained with her charismatic stories of her experiences and she always put other people before herself and went the extra mile to help anyone who needed it.

The love that she shared with her family, the world and most of all my father for over 67 years will continue to endure forever…

Celebration of the Life of Claudia M. Parks

Saturday, June 15, 2024

Fellowship begins at 2:00 PM

Service begins at 3:00 PM

Union General Hospital in Blairsville

35 Hospital Road

Blairsville, GA 30512

Enter through the main entrance and follow signs to service. The Parks Family is grateful to Union General Hospital for allowing us to celebrate in the place that Claudia was an active Auxiliary member. Her heart was in healthcare and serving others her entire life.

~Daughter, Jana Kane