Patricia G. (Gelein) Parks

Patricia G. Parks age 90, of Caldwell, Ohio, passed away Friday, April 7, 2017, at the Summit Acres Skilled Nursing & Rehab in Caldwell. She was born December 27, 1926, in Hibbing, MN, a daughter of the late Harold R. and Merle Miles Gelein.

Pat graduated from Hibbing High School in 1944. She was very musically talented, playing percussion in a jazz quintet in high school called the Jive Five and later offering piano and organ lessons for many years. She met her husband Malcolm in Washington DC while visiting her sister and married him on May 1, 1946. She was an avid writer.  She wrote Noble County history columns for the Journal Leader and the Daily Jeffersonian. After raising her children, she served many years as the Public Relations Director for the Summit Acres Nursing Home.

She was a member and elder of the First Presbyterian Church in Caldwell and sang in their choir. She had also been the choir director for the Caldwell United Methodist Church at one time. She was a member of the former Amazon Chapter #30 Order of the Eastern Star in Caldwell. She was active in many organizations in Noble County-  just a few were the Noble County Tourism Council, Noble County Historical Society, and the Soakum Festival Committee.

In addition to her parents, she is preceded in death by her husband Malcolm Parks, who passed away March 12, 2012; two brothers, Bob Gelein and Hud Gelein; and one sister, Betty Sanders.

Those left to cherish her memory are three children: Merle Henry and her husband Jim of Acworth, GA, and their two daughters Dr. Julie Henry-Kelly and her husband John of Grosse Pointe Farms, MI, and Cheryl Fields of Sheridan, WY; Robert Parks and his wife Judy of Caldwell; and JoAnne Parks Reasinger and her husband Vic and their two sons Malcolm and his wife Cortney and Samuel of Cincinnati.  She also has one great-granddaughter, Brooklyn Fields of Sheridan, WY. She is also survived by several nieces, nephews and friends.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be directed in Pat’s memory to the Caldwell Volunteer Fire Department, P.O. Box 24, Caldwell, OH 43724. 

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, April 15, 2017, at 1:00 PM, at the First Presbyterian Church, 532 North Street in Caldwell, OH 43724, with Rev. Helen Lewis officiating. Inurnment will be held at a later date. 

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