Miriam H. Parris

Miriam Elizabeth (Hammett) Parris, a member of the Greatest Generation, passed away peaceful on March 9th in Greenville, SC—3 days before her 97th birthday. She was born and raised in Gaffney, SC and was a graduate of Gaffney High School. She would have loved to have gone to college but was not able to due to family financial limitations. However, she was determined to see her four boys get college degrees and collectively they secured six.

She married Marvin Roy Parris, also from Gaffney, on June 2, 1946 and had seventy years of a strong marriage until Roy’s passing in November 2016. She then lived on her own in Sellersburg, IN until the age of 94 before moving to Greenville, SC in August of 2021 to live with son Alan and daughter-in-law, Cheryl.

Roy served as a flight engineer on the B-29 bomber in the Army Airforce during World War II which gave him access to educational benefits via the GI-Bill. Around 1948, Miriam and Roy moved to Louisville, KY so that Roy could attend a two-year electronics school. Miriam helped support him by working as a telephone operator for the old Southern Bell Telephone Company. After graduation, Roy went to work as a broadcast engineer at WAVE (NBC), the first TV station in Kentucky, where he worked for 41 years until retirement.

Around 1953, they moved across the Ohio River to a house on dead-end street near Providence High School in the Clarksville, IN area. As the third and fourth sons were born, they built a tri-level home on the end of that same street where they lived for many years. In their senior years, they live in a ranch house in Sellersburg, IN.

Miriam was the consummate 50’s and 60’s mother and homemaker until youngest son, John, was a first-grader at the old McCulloch Elementary School when she became a teacher’s aide. When the school’s librarian retired, Miriam took over the library where she shared her love of reading with countless school children. As the school librarian, Miriam was known for her extensive book reading keeping decades of school children enthralled with her many accents and imaginative story telling. With four boys, she spent countless summer days and evenings at the Clarksville Little League baseball fields as well as softball fields where Roy played on their church’s team. For reasons unknown, she was a Boston Red Sox fan. She tolerated all her boys’ roughhousing, loudly playing rock ‘n roll and having their friends over anytime. She made the Parris household welcoming to everyone.

In retirement, she and Roy traveled all over the USA, Europe, Scandinavia, and the Baltics with their dear friends, Ben and Ann Dowdle-also originally from Gaffney. They also visited Egypt where they traveled down the Nile River with son, John, who was then working in Alexandria.

Miriam was a coffee junkie which she drank with every meal and numerous times throughout each day. She was a lover of chocolate and was a voracious reader having read thousands of books. Her boys felt that she made the world’s best fried chicken. She loved bright colored clothes (never drab) and getting her hair done every week, when possible. She preferred to be non-confrontational and sought peace with everyone she came into contact with. Anyone who knew her well loved her. She was the epitome of a sweet, Southern Lady.

A true believer, she placed her faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and was a devoted Southern Baptist.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Forrest C. and Mary Ethel (Allen) Hammett, her three younger brothers: Gene, Wayne and Jerry Hammett and her beloved husband, Roy.

She is survived by her four sons: William D. “Bill” (Monica) Parris, New Albany, IN, Alan R. (Cheryl) Parris, Greenville, SC, Joel M (Amy) Parris, Rock Hill, SC, John C. (Laurie) Parris, Washington, DC, ten grandchildren and four great grandchildren with a fifth one due in April.

Visitation will be from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm Friday, March 15th and from 9 AM to 11AM Saturday, March 16th at Kraft Funeral Service, 2776 Charlestown Road, New Albany, Indiana. Funeral service will be held 11:00 am Saturday in the Kraft Funeral Chapel with entombment to follow at Kraft-Graceland Memorial Park in New Albany, Indiana.

In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate consideration for donations to First Baptist Church, Sellersburg, IN

Online condolences may be made to www.kraftfs.com