Parker Zoe Jackson

Parker Zoe Jackson lived so much life in a short 21 years that any attempt will only scratch the surface. She was born on September 1, 2004 in Laramie, Wyoming and began a marvelous journey that ended tragically February 21, 2026. During those short intervening years she impacted the lives of countless individuals, family, and friends in remarkable and profound ways. From almost the time she was able to hold a pencil, she drew. She drew everything she saw, both in the world and from her boundless imagination, working from a seemingly endless well of creativity to produce art in pencil, ink, paint, clay, cloth, paper and whatever else grabbed her attention. Parker was also a prolific writer who made it her personal mission to keep in touch with her friends through personal letters that were always meticulously crafted in her clever style with penmanship that more resembled a font than the work of a hand. These letters reflected her attention to detail in everything she did in the styles of paper, envelopes, and very often sealed with stamped wax.

Parker never did anything halfway. When she set her mind to something, from artwork to simply cleaning up, she always put her touch in such a way that it was unmistakably her work. Even the notes she took in school, from a very early age through college, looked more like something ready to be printed in an art book than the basic scribbling that most of us use for such throwaway writing.

Parker was a part of Laramie's GATE program (gifted and talented education) in grade school and met several of her lifelong friends during that time. During this period she really started developing her love of art which carried on throughout the remainder of her life.

Parker spent her middle school years summers volunteering at the Alice Hardy Stevens center in Laramie as a guide for guests, narrating the history of the property to tour groups and making all who encountered her feel warmly welcomed and appreciated. As this was her first "job", it taught her the value of working with people in a shared goal. Middle school is also where she continued developing more life friendships and where she learned to speak Spanish. While she would never have called herself fluent, she was more than capable of communicating entirely in Spanish and used this skill later in an educational trip to Costa Rica and later in life with a trip to Mexico with mom.

High School saw Parker begin to bloom into the amazing young woman she became. During this time she drew constantly, focusing much of her time with colored pencils and pens, developing her skills and imagination while producing countless pieces. She would sit in front of the TV listening to her shows in Spanish while producing some amazing work. One of the things she loved was to draw exactly the space around her as she saw it, complete with her hands on the paper doing the work. It is these moments in time, recorded forever, that I find myself looking back upon with great fondness and awe.

Parker valued personal connections. She never met someone for whom she couldn't find some good. She didn't just remember people's names, she was always noticing the small things that make people unique and was sure to point it out to elevate their day and brighten their mood. "I love how you've styled your hair", or "That is a wonderful scarf". The little things can mean a lot and she was always the person to notice. She had the most wonderful friendship group in high school, consisting of some of the best kids we've ever met. She was picky about who she confided in and was a great judge of character in choosing her preferred peers. She loved to host parties at the house, using the pool table as a way to keep people busy and connected. As she grew as a person, she developed a love of the outdoors and began spending more time hanging out under the stars, with campfires, and singing with the Williams boys playing their guitars.

During this era she decided she wanted to do more travel and decided to take French, but didn't just take French One, she jumped directly into French three and was able to spend a couple weeks in France divided between a week of seeing various sights and a week living with a French family to learn about the culture directly from those who live it. Inspired by a very close friend who made the jump first and spent a school year in France, Parker decided to become a Rotary ambassador and worked to earn the money to go overseas for a longer time. She was accepted into the program and was set to go, but Covid interrupted her plans and she had to stay home for her junior year after all. Her senior year overseas was also foiled due to Covid, but ever determined, and fortunately young for her class year, she was able to complete high school, and then leave to spend a second senior year studying at an art high school as a Rotary ambassador in a town in Italy just a few miles from Milan. She left home with only the barest understanding of Italian, and returned 10 months later fluent in speech and writing Italian and with a wealth of experience learned from being totally immersed in the culture.

Parker had originally wanted to attend college somewhere other than the University of Wyoming, but a summer camp with the UW High school Institute completely changed her mind and UW was her first choice. She was accepted into the honors program and, determined to live on campus and live the full experience, she moved into the honors house for a semester. During that semester, she then decided she wanted to become an RA and applied, being accepted immediately and moving to Downy Hall as a new RA in only her second semester of school. She blossomed in the RA role, which she continued through her time at UW, becoming a senior RA in her junior year.

Parker Zoe was many things in her time here with us. She was a painter, a writer, a poet, an outdoors person, a climber, a tea aficionado, a traveler, a star gazer, a developing cook, a lover of old items, a collector, a close friend, an amazing daughter, a loving sister who followed in her big brother's footsteps, and an old soul. Everybody who knew her knew why we always said, "Everybody loves Parker."