Addison Kent Parrish

Addison Kent Parrish, 23, of Denver, NC passed away on Wednesday, June 26, 2018 surrounded by family and friends.

A 2013 graduate and three-year Varsity Letterman of East Lincoln Senior High School, Addison was a 2012 All State Baseball player. At different times he was pitcher, catcher, and first baseman. In 2012, he was a member of East Lincoln's undefeated (14-0 ) Southern Piedmont 1A/2A Conference team, was named to the All-Conference Team, and was the conference's Player of the Year. He was also All Conference in 2013 despite a strained shoulder, which dampened his final season. The 2012 East Lincoln Baseball team was the first since 1976 to go undefeated during the season.

Addison's Region 6 team won the Gold Medal in the Powerade State Baseball Games in 2012, considered the state's premiere high school baseball event. He also played baseball for American Legion Post 455. A slugger, when Addison came to bat, the kids in the stands got ready to run after the balls he was known to put well over the outfield fences and into the woods. He hit 14 home runs during his high school career.

Addison played baseball and basketball for East Lincoln Optimist teams as a child; Kelley baseball and the Lake Norman Nitros as a youth (which for a time was ranked the top youth baseball team in the nation). He also played for the Matthews Slammers and Pelican tournament baseball teams, the Drypond Blue Sox and the West Virginia Power showcase teams, and the Collegiate Summer League team, the Mooresville Spinners. He joined Western Carolina University's baseball team in 2013. In his collegiate tryouts, he was pitched 24 balls, six of which he hit over the fence and an equal number he put off the wall with a nearly unheard of average off-the-bat exit velocity of 95 miles per hour. Injuries interrupted his collegiate baseball career, which he hoped to resume this fall after recovery from a late 2017 surgery.

During his summer breaks and afterward, Addison worked at Trillium Resort in Cashiers, NC where he enjoyed sharing his knowledge of sports trivia with the visitors, guests, and fellow employees. Here he also discovered an interest in fine cooking, which he was just beginning to explore.

Addison grew up on the family farm surrounded by his large, extended family, which was high school sports obsessed even before they became his most rabid cheering section. His childhood was a mix of cleats, dogs, stained uniforms soaking on the back porch, marathon ESPN watching, occasional hay hauling, adventures in the woods with his cousins, and big family meals with grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles, great aunts and great uncles and cousins of too many degrees and removes to count. He was smart as a whip and stubborn as a mule and quick to make a friend. His phone was constantly buzzing with messages from his buddies, several hundred of whom held their own moving memorial service for him on East Lincoln's baseball field Friday evening. He would have been especially pleased to know that his dog Sosa was included in this service.

Addison is survived by his parents Jimmy Parrish and Lana Cherry Parrish and brothers Cason and Jameson of Denver, NC; maternal grandparents Steve and Gailya Callaway Cherry of Denver, NC; grandmother Linda Wilhelm Parrish of Rockwell, NC; uncle and aunt Dennis and Allison Cherry Horne and cousins Dawson, Allden, and Ansley of Denver, NC; uncle and aunt Lee and Cyndi Moore Parrish of Cornelius, NC and cousin Trey; and uncle Kevin Cherry of Raleigh, NC. He was predeceased by his paternal grandparents Eddie and Becky Tyner Parrish.

Addison was an organ donor, and his family is very happy that he will be helping others even after his death. Donations in Addison's memory can be made to Amber's Army and Danny Duckworth, both friends who are struggling with serious illness. Please send to Allison Horne at 7964 Keistler Store Road, Sherrill's Ford, NC 28673. A high school baseball award is being created in his memory.

Visitation Tuesday, July 3, 2018 from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM at East Lincoln High School Denver, NC. Service will follow at 5:00 PM. Following the service, Addison will be buried in the Denver United Methodist Church Cemetery.

The Good Samaritan Funeral Home is serving the Parrish Family