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RESOLUTION NO. 05-269
A RESOLUTION HONORING LOUISE SUMMERLIN
PARKER ON BEING ONE OF THE TWO OLDEST
LIVING ST. LUCIE COUNTY NATIVES BEING
RECOGNIZED DURING THE CELEBRATION OF THE
100th YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE
ESTABLISHMENT OF ST. LUCIE COUNTY, FLORIDA
WHEREAS, the Board of County Commissioners of St. Lucie County, Florida,
has made the following determinations:
1. In search for the oldest living St, Lucie County native, two ninety-three
year old women were deemed worthy of recognition.
2, Born on September 14, 1911, into the pioneer Summerlin family, Louise
Summerlin Parker would have been the oldest St, Lucie Countian, except for the fact
that her mother happened to be out of town when she gave birth,
3, "My father (Ruby Summerlin) was working in Fort Myers," Mrs, Parker
said, "cooking for a dredging crew, My mother (Mae Rawson Summerlin) went over to
visit him and cook some pies for the crew, And that's when I came into the world,"
4, And that's why Louise Summerlin Parker, the daughter oflong-time St,
Lucie County residents, happened to be born in Fort Myers on September 14, 1911.
5, Mrs, Parker's earliest memories are of playing along the Indian River
Lagoon at St, Lucie Village, "We fished and swam and played all day along the
riverbank," she recalled, "I must have been 4 or 5 years old."
6, Fort Pierce was "just a little burg back then," she said, remembering when
Second Street was the main drag in town and when P. P. Cobb ran the general store
in the building that bears his name,
7. Benjamin Leland "Tuffy" Summerlin introduced his sister to Edward
"Eddie" Parker, and the two soon began dating, which in Fort Pierce at that time
meant either catching a movie at the Sunrise Theatre or dancing at Odom's, a
downtown bar with a nickel jukebox. Eddie Parker recalls working for 15 cents an
hour, 10 hours a day, six days a week. "I made $9.00 a week," he said, "And I helped
him spend it," Mrs, Parker added,
8. They married at the St. Lucie County Courthouse in 1937. She was 26
years old; he was 21. "I married him young so I could raise him like I wanted," Mrs.
Parker said.
9, Mrs. Parker is now 93, and Mr, Parker is 89, They still live in St, Lucie
Village in a small house he built just after World War II, They have two children,
Joseph "Joe" Parker of Fort Pierce and Ruby Parker Little of Jacksonville; with five
grandchildren and six great-grandchildren,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Board of County
Commissioners of St. Lucie County, Florida:
1. This Board does hereby Honor Louise Summerlin Parker on being one of the
two oldest living St. Lucie County Natives during the Celebration of the 100th Year
Anniversary of the establishment of St. Lucie County, Florida,
2, This Board wishes Mrs. Parker many more Happy Birthdays.
PASSED AND DULY ADOPTED this 28th day of June, 2005,
ATTEST:
BOARD 0; ~~NTY COMMISSIONERS
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BY: (J?ß~AJ· ~'ít;J~Ì1/4'~
CHAIRMAN