Melba Jo Parrott
October 20, 1929 – May 10, 2022
Melba Jo Parrott passed into eternity on May 10, 2022, at her apartment in Menger Springs community in Boerne. She was in the loving presence of her three children and her steadfast caregivers.
Melba was born Oct. 20, 1929, in Floresville, Texas, to Eddie Lee and Melba Powell. She was preceded in death by her husband of 66 years, Harman Parrott of Waco, Texas. She is survived by her three children, Linda Parrott of San Antonio, Susan Parrott of San Marcos and Frank Parrott and his wife, Norma, of Austin. Melba is also the proud grandmother of two, both children of Frank, Michael Brooks Parrott and Lena Ann Parrott. Melba has one sibling, her younger sister, Jeannine Shold. Jeannie and her husband, Duke, reside in Port Hadlock, Washington.
Melba was born nine days before “Black Tuesday,” the day the stock market crashed in 1929, which was the start of The Great Depression. As a Depression-era child, she recalled living a simple childhood.
Her parents relocated to San Antonio early in her life upon her father, Eddie Lee, nicknamed “Froggy,” accepting a job with Alamo Lumber Company.
Melba spent a lot of her adolescence riding a bicycle around dirt roads in Floresville and visiting with her many relatives there on weekends. She delighted in being chauffeured around her family’s former neighborhoods in San Antonio where she would point out the movie theater she went to as an elementary school student or where the local drugstore was in the Woodlawn area of the 1930s . She told the story of how her mother enjoyed fishing in Woodlawn Lake and would cook up her stringer of fish for the family dinner.
Melba attended Thomas Jefferson High School and was quick to tell a new acquaintance where she had graduated. She stayed an active member of her graduation class through their reunions. She often spoke of the glorious azaleas and rose bushes that lined the walkways of Jefferson High. Her class was an extraordinary group of individuals who fought in wars, became leaders in local and national companies and mothers who raised many of the Baby Boomers that shaped America into the pre-eminent world power.
After graduation from Jefferson, Melba attended Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, a small all-girls school which has educated and empowered many women in its long history. It was at Stephens where Melba met Maggie Kimball Jarrat and began a 75-year long friendship with her dearest friend. She transferred after two years to The University of Texas at Austin where she was a member of the ZTA sorority.
During a quadruple date (yes, all in one car) she met her future husband, Harman, who was a PKA member enrolled at UT on the GI Bill after World War II. They married in San Antonio on September 1, 1950.
After Harman graduated from UT Law School, they moved to San Antonio for a few years, where he worked in the federal district general attorney’s office before he was offered a position with a Houston law firm.
In Houston, Melba made many lifelong friendships while she reared her family for 30 years in the Spring Branch-Memorial area. Melba was cancer survivor three times in her life. She worked tireless and with cheer as a volunteer along with her husband at the Stehlin Foundation in Houston and was also one of the original nine founding women of the Cancer Fighters of Houston in 1980.
Upon her husband’s retirement, Melba and Harman moved back to her beloved San Antonio and settled in Fair Oaks Ranch where they lived for 25 years. Many of the neighbors on their street – Timbertop Drive – were retirees. Harman and Melba become part of a wonderful group of friends on Timbertop that loved and looked after each other.
In 2010, they moved to San Marcos where they lived next door to their son and his wife for 10 years. In 2020, Melba moved back to the Boerne area and resided at Menger Springs.
The Parrott family wishes to express their sincere gratitude to many who were great friends and caregivers to Melba, especially in the past decade. It would be impossible to list them all, but the list would have to start with Ruby Martinez and her family along with the staff at Menger Springs and the care givers from HomeInstead/Boerne.
There will be a Celebration of Melba’s Life gathering at The Kendall Inn event hall in Boerne on Saturday, June 4 at 2 p.m. The family is asking in lieu of flowers individuals please consider making a donation to Cancer Fighters of Houston, P.O. Box 272641, Houston, TX 77277-61 or visit its website for ways to donate at cfohtown.com.
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