Peggy Jean Parker

1944 - 2024

Peggy Jean McKee Parker

Beloved mother, Nana, sister, daughter, and wife, Peggy Jean McKee Parker went to be with her Lord on the evening of her 80th birthday, Monday, June 17, 2024.

Peggy spent her milestone birthday comfortable and at peace, eating homemade peach pound cake and flipping through cards, letters, and mementos from loved ones she had collected through the decades.

Born on June 17, 1944 to Louise and Howard McKee in Benton County Mississippi, Peggy did her growing up in Shelby County Tennessee, where she married and had three beautiful daughters: Cheryl Ann, Pamela Kay, and Cyndee Lynn. Her girls were her life and her joy, and some of our favorite family photos display the girls' matching outfits their mother sewed with care and her signature fine attention to detail.

A masterful homemaker, Peggy kept a meticulously clean home and resplendent flower beds, and her kitchen was perpetually at work producing nourishing homemade meals (and elaborate birthday cakes) for her family, the recipes for which now make up the lion's share of a five-volume family cookbook. Peggy was an inventive and perfectionistic baker, and she honed her skills over the years by taking classes at Mary Carter and kept a stash of recipes she would clip from the Commercial Appeal, Southern Living, and Cooks Illustrated. To be loved was to receive your own miniature chocolate cherry cake from Nana; it's a recipe she tweaked and perfected over time. It was her signature.

After raising her girls at home on Creston Avenue in Frayser, Peggy began working as an accounts receivable clerk in 1978. She subsequently retired from a landmark Memphis accounting firm, Watkins Uiberall, in July 2013 after many years of service among good friends, including Wilma Davis and Donna Ephgrave.

On her own time, however, Peggy loved to host her growing gaggle of grandchildren, organizing trips to the Memphis Zoo and to the Hickory Ridge Mall to ride the double-decker carousel. Holiday gatherings were her forte - Peggy was the undisputed queen of Thanksgiving and made a point of taking her girls and grandkids to see the Singing Christmas Tree at Bellevue Baptist nearly every year. She was a noted lover of "girls' days," whether with her own daughters or her sisters-in-law Rosemary Patterson and Goldie Patterson, and she could be found many weekends sipping peach tea at a tearoom or on a marathon shopping trip.

In the early 1990s, Peggy met her husband Gene Parker at Bellevue Baptist Church, where they quickly fell in love, bonding over their shared love of Christ, and married on April 3, 1993. When she and Gene joined their families, Peggy was blessed with the opportunity to be a stepmother to Gene's son Bryan, whom she loved as well as she did her own daughters.

Together, Peggy and Gene were dedicated members of the Caring Couples Sunday school class at Bellevue, where they made friends with numerous couples, namely Robert and Virginia Yates, and took opportunities to volunteer in their community. The couple were also actively loving neighbors, participating in the Brandywine neighborhood association in Hickory Hill for many years. Peggy and Gene spent their final years very comfortably as members of the King's Daughters and Sons Home community in Bartlett, where they had the opportunity to be loved on by staff and KDS neighbors. Peggy and Gene were blessed with 29 years of marriage.

Peggy Jean was preceded in death by two loving husbands, Robert Earl Sanderlin and Earnest Eugene Parker, the latter of whom went ahead of his sweetheart to Heaven on January 4, 2023. Peggy was preceded in death by her parents Annie Louise Janes McKee and Howard McKee as well as her sister Mary Ethel McKee Goss. Peggy was also preceded in death by her youngest daughter, Cyndee Lynn Patterson Jenkins.

Peggy leaves behind daughters Cheryl Patterson Bailey Miller and Pamela Patterson Yates (Michael) and stepson Bryan Parker (Karen). She leaves grandchildren Jeff Bailey (Hannah), John Bailey (Shelly), Molly Yates (Jordan), Nicholas Yates, Patrick Yates (Victoria), Madeline Kelley, Matthew Kelley, as well as Bryan and Karen's children, Aaron Parker and Addisyn Parker. She leaves two great-grandchildren: Charles Davis and Adalee Bailey. Peggy leaves brothers Joe McKee (Rita), Bill McKee, and Ralph McKee (Joann) and leaves numerous well-loved nieces and nephews. She also leaves sister-in-law Rosemary Patterson.

The family will receive relatives and friends on Wednesday, July 3 at 1:00 p.m. followed by a memorial service at 2:00 p.m. all in the Fireside Chapel of Memorial Park Funeral Home.

Memorial Park Funeral Home and Cemetery, 5668 Poplar Ave, Memphis, TRN, 38119. (901) 767-8930