PARIS — The Maine Veterans Home has selected Wilma J. “Jeannie” Parker as the resident of the month.

Jeannie grew up in Watertown, N.Y. She graduated from high school in Black River, N.Y. After high school she wanted to be a nurse, so she got a job in a hospital where she helped deliver babies.

In 1952 she joined the Air Force and was stationed in Lackland AFB, Texas. Jeannie remembers welcoming the new women in her barracks by showing them the ropes. After her discharge in 1953, she moved to Azusa, Calif. She worked as a butcher for 20 years, then she worked at Bausch & Lomb Optical Company in Los Angeles for five years in the inventory control department. She then went to the Shell Oil Company in Anaheim, Calif. as an accounts manager. Eventually she came to Maine and became the owner of the Pines Market store in Eustis.

In the early 1980s she worked for SAD 61 school district as a head custodian and then eventually retired in the early 1990s.

Jeannie traveled to England and across the United States. She loves the outdoors, from sitting in the woods to just watching wildlife. She also loves to sing. When she was younger she performed with the group “The Sweet Adelines.” She is an artist, loves sketching and working with clay, and loves to tell stories. She was also very handy at home as far as fixing things that had to do with carpentry work.

The fondest memories that Jeannie always spoke of was her natural gift of bringing joy to all who crossed her path with her spirit that is so generous. Her message was and still is, “To stop and remember all the times that I gave lovingly of myself and know that there were my successes. I am a very rich woman when I understand that the moments that came from love cannot be measured on any scale, they are priceless.”

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