Edward B. Parker

The Rev. Edward B. Parker, 79, Bismarck, formerly of Hebron, died July 13, 1999, in Bismarck. Services will be 1 p.m. Friday at First United Methodist Church, Bismarck, with the Revs. Doug Diehl and Dwight Meier officiating. Burial will be in the Wishek City Cemetery.

Visitation will be from 4 to 9 p.m. MDT today at Spangelo Funeral Home, Hebron, and 11 a.m. Friday until service time at First United Methodist Church, Bismarck. A prayer service will be held at 7:30 MDT tonight at Spangelo Funeral Home, Hebron, led by the Rev. David Ling.

Ed was born on May 3, 1920, in rural Dover, Tenn., the son of Jesse Armstrong and Mattie (McHood) Parker. Ed was raised and educated at Dover, graduating in 1938. He worked in California for a while and in 1944, he entered the U.S. Army and served in the Philippines.

After his discharge in 1946, he attended Murray State College in Murray, Ky., graduating in 1949. He entered Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ky. While at seminary, he met and later married Agnes Chambers on Sept. 8, 1951, at Greenburg, Ohio.

Upon completion of the seminary, he came to pastor the Methodist Church at McKenzie in June of 1952. In 1961, they moved to the church at Oakes, and in 1970, to Wishek where he pastored until 1990, when he retired and moved to Bismarck. In 1991, he accepted a call to pastor at United Methodist Church in Hebron where he has pastored since.

He is survived by his wife, Agnes; two sons and one daughter-in-law, David and Lori, Danville, Ill., and Tim, Dallas, Texas; one granddaughter, Cassidie Ann, Danville; one brother, Harry Parker, Granite City, Ill.; one sister, Norma Young, Scituate, Mass.; and five nieces and one nephew.

He was preceded in death by his parents; one son, Mark; and one brother, Groover. (Spangelo Funeral Home, Hebron)