One of Quanah Parker’s sons was White Lewis Parker. He was born in 1887 to Quanah Parker (1846 – 1911) and Maheheet-To-Wook-Ky (1862 – 1914), one of the wives of Quanah Parker. In the Comanche tradition, Quanah Parker had more than one wife.
Rev. Parker was drawn to ministry as a young man, having first served as an interpreter for missionary J. L. Reid who was then a missionary on behalf of the Dutch Reformed Church. Parker attended Cooks Theological school in Phoenix, Arizona. After he completed his studies, he joined the Methodist church. Parker later served as pastor of churches in Broken Bow, Kildare, Ponca City, Kingfisher and various other congregations in and around Comanche County, Oklahoma.
On December 1, 1980 White Parker married Laura Esther Clark, daughter of Rev. Milton Anthony Clark (1842 – 1913) and Mary Caroline Roberds Clark (1859 – 1940). Rev. Clark served as Methodist missionary for twenty-nine years, twenty-five of which were for the tribes in Oklahoma.
White and Laura Parker had two daughters and a son. The son, Milton Quanah “Clute” Parker, died of pneumonia when he was sixteen years old. At the time, he had been attending school in Arizona. The two daughters lived to be adults.
Rev. Parker often came to Texas and participated in historical ceremonies. The family attended reunions at Fort Parker. One occasion reported in the Corsicana Daily Sun issue of May 23, 1936 was at the time of the one hundredth anniversary of the Comanche attack on Fort Parker, which took place on May 19, 1836. At this anniversary, seven members of Quanah Parker’s family were guests of Corsicana residents. The Comanche branch of Parker family in attendance included Rev. Parker, his daughters Bertha and Cynthia, Topay Parker (a wife of Quanah), White Parker’s mother, White’s sister and several others. The article noted that Rev. Parker had spoken at a school the day before and referred to an event one year earlier in which he had taken part in a Methodist church program in Corsicana.
Another such event was a three day celebration at Fort Parker State Park in July, 1953. In the July 6, 1953 issue of the Mexia Daily News (Mexia, Texas) it was reported that this event was attended by numerous members of the Quanah Parker family and over one hundred Anglo members of the family of his grandmother, Cynthia Ann Parker. During the event, Rev. Parker and his half-sister named Mrs. Wanada Parker Page presented the city of Mexia with various personal effects of Chief Quanah Parker. Mrs. Page’s gifts included two pitchers from Quanah’s silver service, an elk bone used in tanning deer and buffalo hides along with a Comanche hair brush. Rev. Parker’s gifts included an Elgin watch that had belonged to Quanah, a large portrait of the Chief, a photo of Quanah standing by the casket of his mother Cynthia, a stone from Cynthia’s original grave in Texas, a Comanche rattle made from a gourd and a sample of peyote used in Indian church religious services. The article noted that Mrs. Page related that she had traveled to Washington, D. C. to serve as an interpreter for their father, Quanah Parker.
The Anglo Parker family descendants and relatives included members of the Plummer family, descended from former captive Rachel Parker Plummer, a first cousin of Cynthia Parker. Speakers included an area judge, a representative of Texas Governor Allan Shivers and members of both branches of the Parker family.
A local reporter recounted his meeting with members of the Comanche branch of the family. His comments in the above noted issue of the Mexia Daily News were related to certain areas in which the previously accepted Pease River battle (August 11, 1873) accounts were at variance with the Comanche accounts. The Anglo account held that Peta Nocona, husband of Cynthia Parker, was killed in that battle. The Comanche account, and the position maintained by Quanah, was that Peta, grandfather of the Parker visitors, was away on a hunting trip and that the deceased adult male killed in the battle was a Comanche male other than Peta. The Quanah Parker family also gave the spelling of Nocona’s name as “Peutock No-con-ne.” Mrs. Page related that Quanah’s Comanche name was “Chee-tah” and that Quanah was essentially a nickname. She was also of the opinion that Quanah was given the last name of Parker by writers at the time, but that he must have had no objection to it since he adopted the use of it as well.
At the time of his death, White Parker had been an ordained Methodist minister for twenty-six years and was an elder in the Oklahoma Methodist Conference. On March 2, 1956, Rev. Parker was killed in a head-on collision in Oklahoma, about five miles west of Chickasha on US 62. At the time, he was serving as pastor of Mt. Scott Comanche church and Petarcy church outside Lawton. He was on his way home from a Methodist function on the campus of Oklahoma City University where he had just completed a three week study course. Mrs. Parker was a passenger in the vehicle and was injured in the crash. She received a head injury and was taken to a hospital in Chickasha. The other car’s driver, David Runnells, and passenger, Norman McCoy were also injured, receiving severe cuts, but Rev. Parker was the only fatality. The officers speculated that Rev. White was in the process of passing another vehicle when the crash occurred. Another motorist remarked that he recognized the Parker vehicle. When he had seen it earlier Rev. Parker was driving cautiously.
Mrs. Parker survived her husband about six years. She was also an ordained Methodist minister, having served along with White Parker for many years. Following his death, she continued to serve as pastor of the Petarsy and Mt. Scott Comanche churches. She was also an organist and had played a portable organ in religious services. Prior to her death, she had resided for a number of years with the family of a daughter in Kissimmee, Osceola County, Florida but had returned to Oklahoma for treatment in a Lawton hospital about three weeks before she passed away. Both White Parker and Laura Parker are buried in Lawton’s Highland Cemetery.
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