Maude Parker

1920 - 2013

Maude Frankland Parker died on Sept. 14, 2013, at the age of 93. She was born on June 13, 1920, to John MacRea Parker and Winifred Stafford Parker in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
In 1941, she graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in economics from Vassar College. After earning an R.N. degree from Columbia University, she worked for a short time as a nurse. She also attended Yale School of Public Health. While at Vassar, she was introduced to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and that is where her life of service, pacifism and non-violent resistance began. While still in college, she volunteered in an American Friends Service Committee work camp with migrant farm workers in California and later co-directed the first AFSC interracial work camp in the south.
A source of pride to her, in 1948 Maude convinced a young doctor to let her use natural childbirth for her first child (and all subsequent children). She traveled from her home in Ohio to New Jersey to do this. In 1951, she and her husband, Martin White, moved with their family to Orinda, Calif. They were very active in the Friends Meeting in Berkeley.
In addition to raising six children, she also worked for 10 years at Child Protective Services in Contra Costa County. Maude retired in 1978 and moved to Berkeley until 1991 when she moved to Antioch to live with her daughter, Winnie, and family. She loved the years spent with her grandchildren. In 2004, Maude was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and moved to Fort Bragg to live with her grandson, Kyle, where they shared a home with support from family and other caregivers. Ultimately she moved to Sherwood Oaks where she was loved and cared for during the last years of her life.
Maude loved art and music, spoke French, played piano and was always singing. She was an avid lover of nature, hiked and camped, traveled and read. She loved to laugh and brightened the lives of all who knew her.
Maude is survived by her sons: Greg (Carole) White and children Hilary and Kyle, Fort Bragg; John White (Sid) and son, Frank, Haines, Alaska; Tom White of Concord; daughter, Katharine White and son, Abraham, of Fort Bragg and San Francisco; Beth White and daughter, Jessie, of Veneta, Ore.; and Winnie Duffy and children Maisie, Norah and Ciaran, of Antioch and San Diego. Four great-grandchildren and a sister also survive her.
A memorial to honor her life will be held at the Redwood Coast Senior Center in Fort Bragg, Calif., on Sunday, Nov. 10, 2013, at 2:30 p.m.