Josephine Parker

Josephine “Jo” (Lessard) Parker passed away peacefully in her sleep at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center on December 5, 2022. She was 85 years old. She had Aortic Stenosis, following a stroke she had on May 29 of this year. Josephine was born the 5th child of 8 in Bellaire (?) Michigan in 1937 to Sarah Berg Lessard and Roland Lessard. Her favorite childhood memory was of ice fishing with her father on Bellaire Lake. At the age of 11, her mother passed away at the age of 35. Josie, as she was called, and 3 younger siblings, Suzie, Chuck and Cathie, moved to Flat Rock, Michigan to live with her oldest sister and her husband, Mark and Lucille Ferstle. She graduated from Huron High School in 1955. Josie went to Michigan State University in Lansing and graduated with a degree in Chemistry. While a senior at MSU she married James Lewis Parker. The day she graduated in 1959, she was 8 months pregnant with their first daughter, Jody. Jo interned in the Kalamazoo, Mi. Hospital as a Medical Technologist. The family of three moved to Muskegon where she worked at the hospital there. Here their second daughter, Jennifer, was born. In 1965 they moved to Missoula, Montana so James could go to graduate school. Here Jo worked at the Hospital there as a Med Tech. In in 1968 the family moved to Corvallis, for OSU. Jo worked at Good Samaritan Hospital for 23 years. During these years they purchased 27 acres on Arboretum Road. They would farm hay and care for over 100 sheep, 3 horses, and various steer, chickens, pigs and ducks, dogs and cats. Jo would drive tractors, inoculate sheep, gather eggs and tend a garden. Jo also did the bookkeeping for her husband’s craft store, and occasionally put in a work day there. In 1991 the two divorced and she moved to Kirkland, Washington to work at Evergreen Hospital. She soon met Charles Stuart. They square danced and traveled until his death, December 5, 1996. She moved back to Oregon and eventually met Ron Olson. She moved to Moses Lake, Washington to be with him. Together they bought a motorhome and for four years traveled the United States until his death in 2012. At that time, she moved back to the Corvallis area where she lived until her death. Jo enjoyed cooking, baking, knitting, crocheting and mostly sewing and quilting. She is preceded in death by her parents; siblings Lucille (Ferstle), Robert, Margie (Ruppenthal), Louise (Van Houten), Charles. She is survived by sisters Suzanne (Otgen) and Cathie (McAtee); her daughters, Jody, and Jennifer (Megale), and three grandchildren, Markum, Zachary and Laurel Megale. A Celebration of Life is planned for April 29, 2023 at 2:00 PM at the Grace Lutheran Church in Corvallis. In lieu of flowers donations can be made to the American Cancer Association.

Josephine Parker

June 13, 1937 - December 5, 2022