KAREN SUE PARRISH, CLASS OF 1960, PASSES AWAY.

 

Karen Sue Parrish, Class of 1960, passed away Tuesday, February 8. She was 79 and lived in Bellevue.

Her parents were James Fleming Parrish and Isabell Knoble Parrish. Linda Nobel-Carr, Class of 1967, widow of former Monongah Town Councilman Sanford Carr, is Karen’s cousin.

Linda told me: “She loved all animals, she loved to walk through the woods exploring, she was an outdoor girl for sure.

“Karen and I would walk a lot of times to the old Monongah mines. She showed me where they kept the horses and mules, then we would go up to Number 63 mines.”

Prudence Dean Tetrick Funk, Karen’s friend for 74 years, agreed with Linda that Karen was “an avid horse lover.”

And that Karen enjoyed antiques, the outdoors and nature.

Bob Kasper, in the Class of 1950 with me, and I have been friends since we showed up at the first day of class at Sts. Peter and Paul School in Monongah. That’s EIGHTY FOUR YEARS AGO!

I’ve visited Bob, or Satch as we called him during our teen years because he always wore a cap like Huntz Hall, who played Sach (we weren’t perfect on get names spelled right those days) on “The Bowery Boys” and “East Side Kids” TV series.

At his South Lyon, Michigan home in the Detroit suburbs and at his summer home on Grand Lake with the WVU flag flying all the time, which is in Presque Isle just 2 miles from Lake Huron.

And Satch visited me at my Cuyahoga Falls and current Tallmadge home in Ohio (I moved 2 miles when my wife passed away in 2004, in 2006 when former Akron Beacon Journal co-worker Paula Stone Tucker and I bought a condo together during our 17-year relationship.

Satch and I sat together in Mountaineer Field with my sister, Jackie Olesky Straight, Class of 1955, who lives in Rivesville. And ran into each other while vacationing in Florida.

Bob and Jackie were the godparents of my older daughter, LaQuita, a long-time teacher in the Aurora Schools in Ohio who I call “the Mary Turkovich of Aurora” because LaQuita has the same determination to make her students learn that Miss Turkovich did.

When I visit Monongah I put roses on Miss Turkovich’s grave in Mount Carmel Cemetery and say “Thank you.” The math, algebra and geometry she taught me over 3 years, along with her discipline that refused to let her students NOT learn, served me well after my graduation from West Virginia University School of Journalism and a joyous and successful 43-newspaper career at the Morgantown Dominion-News, Williamson Daily News and Charleston Daily Mail in West Virginia, the St. Petersburg Times in Florida and the Dayton Daily News and Akron Beacon Journal (for the final 26 years) in Ohio.

 

But I digress.

I’ll let Prudy tell you HER story about how she met Karen and their friendship grew and grew, just like Bob and I did:

“I met her when I was visiting with my Grandparents. They lived across the street from the Shenaskys. She lived at the bottom of the hill in the apartments beside the Shenaskys’ barn (on U.S. 19 that housed their products till they brought into or out of the P.P. Shenasky Grocery across the street).

“She came up and introduced herself. That was in 1948. We stayed friends ever since.

“We were always together. We went horseback riding on weekends. Hiked, played with cutouts, colored in coloring books, collected pictures of movie stars and put them in scrapbooks.

“We had a lot of fun back then. After we started high school, we walked to school and walked home together. We were always together.

“My grandparents built a house on their property and my family moved into it. That's why we were so close to Karen.

"I moved to Baltimore after I graduated and she got a boyfriend and we were apart for a while but I came back to Monongah and always made it a point to see Karen."

“Larry Keith (also in the Class of 1960 and whose senior photo is next to Prudy’s because they are in alphabetical order) is my cousin. Donald was his dad.”

 

Karen’s children are Rheba Dinardi of Morgantown, Jason Pethtel of Moundsville and predeceased Lennie R. Pethtel and Donovia Pethtel.

Karen’s Monongah Black Diamond yearbook credits include a fashion show.

Mary Fleming Toothman, Class of 1960, who grew up in Lisbon, Ohio but lives in Venice, Florida today, visited Karen in Monongah.

Mary told me “It’s always hard to lose a longtime friend. Remember her as always being a very sweet, quiet person.”

Earl W. “Buck” Parrish, Jr., Class of 1955, of Louisville, Ohio came to the 2005 and 2006 annual Monongah High Alumni Banquets but he’s not listed in the obituary so he’s probably not a relative.

The parents of Buck, who passed away in 2009, were Earl Parrish, Sr. and Edith L. Brown Parrish. Buck’s widow is Phyllis Parrish, living in Columbus.

Buck died in an auto accident and donated his liver, eyes, lungs and tissue to the living to make their lives better after he passed away.

Domico Funeral Home, founded by the late Monongah High graduate Dave Domico who grew up 3 doors away from my Church Street home when I was about his age, is handling Karen’s arrangements.

Karen’s obituary:

Karen Sue Parrish, 79, of Fairmont, passed away, Tuesday, February 8, 2022. She was born in Fairmont on December 10, 1942, the daughter of the late James Fleming Parrish and Isabell Knoble Parrish.

Karen enjoyed antiques, the outdoors and nature.

Karen is survived by her children, Rheba Dinardi and her husband Pete of Morgantown, and Jason Pethtel and his wife Kimberly of Moundsville; grandchildren, Stephanie Lee, Justine Shaffer, Keirstin Dinardi-Trapp, and Jacob Shaffer; and several other grandchildren, great grandchildren, family, and friends.

In addition to her parents, Karen was preceded in death by two children, Lennie R. Pethtel and Donovia Pethtel; and a granddaughter, Jessica Lee.

Arrangements are under the care of Domico Funeral Home in Fairmont. Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.domicofh.com .