Lena Mae Parker

Lena Mae Hill Parker, 88, joined her beloved husband in heaven on May 3, 2017, two days after his passing. The family will receive visitors at Berry Funeral Home, 1265 Washington Highway, Elberton, GA, from 6-8 p.m. on Friday, May 5. Funeral services will be held at First Baptist Church, 132 Heard St., Elberton, GA, at 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 6. The casket also will be in placed at the church from 1-1:50 p.m. prior to the service for anyone else wishing to pay their respects. Entombment will follow the service at Forest Hills Memorial Park.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be made payable to North Greenville University with “Milton and Lena Parker Christian Ministry Scholarship Fund” written on the memo line and mailed to Office of Advancement, North Greenville University, P.O. Box 1892, Tigerville, SC 29688. Or, donations may also be made to the Alzheimer’s Association with “in memory of Rev. Milton and Lena Parker” written on the memo line and mailed to 106 SRP Drive, Suite A, Evans, GA 30809.

Lena was born on March 4, 1929, in Morganton, NC, as the second of five children to Rev. James Evans and Lilly May Abee Hill. During the Depression years, her father, a Southern Baptist preacher, brought his family back home to Laurens, SC, where Lena grew up helping to raise her four brothers and sisters while her parents grew cotton and vegetables as well as milked cows that they used to supply the community with fresh vegetables, handmade butter, and freshly hand-churned milk.

When she finished high school in the late 1940s, Lena worked in the Laurens Hosiery Mill which allowed her to help provide for her family’s financial needs. Always active in her church and now in her early 20s, Lena felt God’s call to be a pastor’s wife.

When encouraged by her pastor to go to college, she saved enough money to enroll in North Greenville College (now University) where she earned her associate’s degree in 1953. While there, she met and fell in love with a ministerial student, Milton Dorn Parker of Columbia, SC. They married on Oct. 24, 1953.

Serving by her husband’s side, she followed him to his first pastorate in 1954 at Lima Baptist Church in Travelers Rest, SC. Then in 1956, they moved to Nine Forks Baptist Church in Dacusville, SC, where they had started their family with their first daughter, Betty Lenora.
Later that year, the Parker family moved to Mountain View Baptist Church in Spartanburg, SC, where two more daughters, Rebecca Sue and Beverly Ann were born. In 1960, they moved to Blandwood Baptist Church in Rocky Mount, NC, and then on to Second Baptist Church in Hendersonville, NC, in 1963. While serving in NC, Lena managed the household and raised the girls while Milton commuted to Wake Forest, NC, to go to seminary.

In 1966, the Parker family returned to the Upstate with a call to Crosswell Baptist Church in Greenville, SC. By the end of the decade, they were headed to Woodfield Park Baptist Church in Columbia, SC. While there, Lena worked as a para-professional at Lonnie B. Nelson Elementary School and as an assistant in program service for the Business Services Division of the General Board of the S.C. Baptist Convention.

Then in 1975, the family relocated to the Low Country to serve at Old Fort Baptist Church in Summerville, SC. By 1979, they moved to Tabernacle Baptist Church in Union, SC. Ten years later, Lena’s last move was to follow Milton who became the Director of Missions for the Hebron Baptist Association where they made their home in Elberton, GA. After Milton retired at the end of 2003 with over 50 years in the ministry, Lena served by Milton’s side as he became interim pastor to Falling Creek, Fortsonia, and Faith Baptist Churches.

Wherever the Lord called them to serve, Lena was always supportive of Milton and the needs of each church. She always took an active role whether it was Sunday School classes, the choir, or the church library. When at home, she enjoyed her hobbies of quilt making, sewing, puzzles, ceramics, and bread making. In addition, she worked as an upholstery seamstress for several years in a past shop on the Elberton square.

Lena is predeceased by her husband Milton, her parents James and Lilly Hill, her sister Nannie Sue Johnson, her brother James Hill, and her sons-in-law Timothy Levi Smith and William Henry Napier Ellis, Jr. She is survived by her daughters Betty Lenora Parker Ellis of Greenville, SC; Rebecca “Becky” Sue Parker Westmoreland (Boyd Lyndon Westmoreland) of Elberton, GA; and Beverly Ann Parker Smith of Chesnee, SC; by her brother Robert Hill (Edith Hill) of Laurens, SC; and by her sister Nora Mattison of Mountville, SC.

She also is survived by four grandchildren Britney Elizabeth Westmoreland (Cory Walton Grimes) and Parker Benjamin “Ben” Westmoreland of Elberton, GA; Timothy Hunter Smith of Mooresville, NC; and Parker Levi Smith of Chesnee, SC. In addition, she is survived by one great grandson Ason Wes Grimes of Elberton, GA.

Berry Funeral Home & Crematory of Elberton is in charge of the arrangements for Mrs. Lena Mae Hill Parker