Augusta woman celebrates 100th birthday Aug. 3

Each night before she goes to bed Florena “Flo” Parrish recites Psalm 100.         

One of the verses in the short passage says to “serve the Lord with gladness,” and Parrish, who will celebrate her 100^th birthday Aug. 3, has lived a life full of joy and gladness.

Parrish learned the text as an 11-year-old girl living in Atlanta when joining the First United Methodist Church. She also learned the catechism and memorized part of it.

 “One lady who went to church said she’d give me $1 if I memorized the 100^th Psalm,” she said.

During a recent visit with her daughter and next-door neighbor, Jenny Whaley, Parrish and Whaley sat at Parrish’s dining room table which was covered with old photographs, and the two reminisced about a variety of joyful moments such as Lucy and Ethel-like comedic escapades while working together at Weight Watchers, crazy birthday stunts over the years, volunteering with teenagers at her church and being married for 59 years and raising a family.

Parrish was born in Atlanta during summer break of 1925. Her father was a coach at Tennessee Wesleyan at the time, and her grandfather was a doctor. He was the first physician for the Atlanta Crackers’ baseball team. He helped deliver Parrish.

“He walked in to see my mother in labor,” and stayed for the birth, she said.

Parrish had an older sister who she looked up to and wanted to be like. So, when her sister learned to play the trumpet, Parrish wanted to play as well. Her sister was her first trumpet teacher.

 That gift opened up interesting opportunities for her as a teen.

 She was part of the Georgia State Girls Military Band, a 100-member ensemble that traveled to the World’s Fair twice and played for Hollywood’s A-list in 1939

“We met at the Union Station. We met the stars coming in for the premiere of ‘Gone With the Wind’ and paraded from Union Station to Loew’s Grand Theater. We played for them. It was exciting,” she said, adding that Clark Gable was the star she was most interested in seeing.

Her trumpet playing also landed a special assignment. She and her sister were often called on to play for military funerals. Sometimes, she would go alone. When it was the two of them, Parrish would hide from view and be the echo.

On one particularly cold winter’s day, her sister was concerned she’d freeze in the bitter wind. She told Parrish to stay in the vehicle until she heard her sister’s trumpet and then she could get out to play.

 “When I heard her, I rolled the window down and stuck the horn out the window and played,” Parrish said. “When (her sister) came back, she said, ‘I know you were freezing.’ I said, ‘No, I’m not freezing. I’m comfortable.’”

That trumpet is still in use as her 14-year-old, great-grandson, Liam Whaley, plays it.

“He said ‘it means so much more now after hearing all your stories,’” said Jenny Whaley.

Parrish graduated from Atlanta’s Washington Seminary, a private school for girls founded in 1878 by George Washington’s great nieces, in 1943. One of her classmates was Clara Jones, daughter of golfer Bobby Jones.

“She was our May queen. She was real pretty,” she said.

 She met her husband at church. She was sitting in the back of Atlanta’s First United Methodist Church and looked up to see three handsome young men in the balcony. Walt Parrish was one of them. She said she knew he was the one for her.

After the service ended, she casually lingered by the balcony stairs and invited them to youth group. A native of Palmetto, Florida, he had served in the Navy and was in Atlanta attending Georgia Tech. He came to youth group, and later came to a church play she was in.

The two married on Aug. 13, 1949.

Flo Parrish worked for several governmental agencies over the years including the Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Housing Administration. When the couple moved to Augusta in 1952 for Walt Parrish to take a job at DuPont at what was then called the Savannah River Plant. She took a job at the Atomic Energy Commission.

“I kidded my husband ‘I was your boss,’” she said.

Years later, Parrish joined Whaley at Weight Watchers as the receptionist and worked there 15 years.

That job brought several humorous moments including one that still stands out to them both more than three decades later.

Weight Watchers had a program in which people could join and attend meetings at work, so Mom and Daughter would pack up a scale and boxes of materials to conduct the meeting. On one occasion, they were headed to a business they’d never been to and ended up in the wrong building. It had a revolving door. Parrish put some of the boxes on a cart, but she and the boxes got stuck in the door when the boxes shifted and fell off a cart.

With every life; however, there are also times of sorrow.

Walt Parrish died in 2008. Since he was a veteran, his funeral included the playing of “Taps,” which brought extra tears to her eyes and the eyes of her family.

Parrish has marked her birthdays over the years with fun stunts; many from the imagining of her daughter, Trish Parrish Smith. Parrish has taken a motorcycle ride, had a kayaking photo opp when she turned 95 and had lunch with Santa in his off-season, much to the amazement of small children. She dressed up like a rock star.

For 100, though, it will be the party with family and friends. Parrish has six grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.

“The biggest reason I’m still here is because of the Lord. Without His help, I wouldn’t be here,” she said.

Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. She’s won multiple Georgia Press Association awards and received the 2018 Greater Augusta Arts Council’s media award. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.