Parsons, Francis Roscoe ""Frank"

Passed: 1941-02-01

Age: 74

Source: Jackson Herald

Death Notice: 1941-02-04

Obituary Date: 1941-02-07

Information: DEATH CLAIMS AGED FARMER-FRANK PARSONS TAKEN BY PNEUMONIA AT FAIRMONT - Funeral services for Frank R. Parsons, 74 years old, were held from the Mays Funeral Home in Ripley Monday with Rev. John J. Loudin in charge and the body was taken to the Pleasant Hill cemetery on Parchment for burial.  Another service was held at Pleasant Hill with Rev. J. R. Withrow, a former pastor, in charge.  Mr. Parsons' death resulted from pneumonia which followed an attack of influenza.  He died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Flora Hoult of Fairmont, Saturday and the body was brought to the Mays mortuary Saturday night and prepared for burial.      During his lifetime he was one of the outstanding citizens and farmers of the Pleasant Hill community on Parchment.  After the death of his wife a few years ago, he sold his farm there and since that time had lived with his children spending a part of each year with them.  He is survived by two sons, Boyd R. Parsons of Evans and Rolla Parsons of Ripley, Rt. 2, and three daughters, Mrs. Mae Parsons Mooney of Baltimore, Mrs. Flora Hoult of Fairmont and Mrs. Elva Canter of Letart.      The following was read at the funeral: Francis Roscoe Parsons was born to John and Nancy Parsons, August 6th, 1864.  There survive in his immediate family three daughters:  May Mooney of Baltimore, Elva Canter of Letart, and Flora Hoult of Fairmont, and two sons, Boyd and Rolla of Evans.  There remain two brothers, T. T. Parsons and A. T. Parsons of this community.  He married Ida Kessel, November 9th 1884 and she lived to help celebrate their Golden Anniversary.  There are also deceased his parents, brothers, William Henry and Burton, and two sisters, Esther Morrison and Louise Stewart and a son, Roy.      These are brief statistics of a man whom we knew and who had his being with us until a few moments ago.  But a good man or good woman cannot be circumscribed by words, however elaborate and generous.  Frank Parsons was no ordinary man.  He had deficiencies, but they in comparison to his real worth would stand as a shrubby briar at the foot a a great oak.      We think of him first as a Churchman.  Old Pleasant Hill was the apple of his eye and he gave that lovely community his first fruit and ever by precept and example was a leader extraordinary.  Whatever was needed he supplied.  Many of us grew up under his Superintendency in Sabbath School.  He taught us how to live.  Now he has showed us how to die.  What will Old Pleasant Hill do now without him?  Can it ever be the same?  I can only speak for myself.  It won't be the same to me again.  I'll look up into the left hand corner and he will not be there in body.  Who knows?  It may be that his Spirit will hover there.  So far as I am concerned it will be.  That place is hallowed because of him and others we have loved so much.  It was a joke once when he said he knew that a certain disturbance was from outsiders.  He said he knew it could not be Pleasant Hill boys.  Now his statement becomes or should become a vow for us all to take and keep.      What manner of man was he out of church?  There is where the real man showed to better advantage.  His manners were those of a polished gentleman.  No one in our vicinity took such care in relations to his fellowmen.  He was meticulous in dress and courteous and thoughtful in speech.  His attitudes to others was not only proper but he was particular to give others the feeling that he was a gentleman and considered them his peer. He was kind and tender as a woman.  He was a much bigger man than his soft spoken words might have indicatied.      He pioneered in Oil and Gas in Jackson County almost half a century ago.  He always was a man of affairs.  He was not only able to manage a small farm so that it kept his family in luxury but educated them therefrom and contrived to save sums of money at the same time and always generous to church and neighborhood.    He was a school man throughout his long life.  He saw the necessity of schooling and was the kind of patron who was a help in the conduct of schooling activities.  We have gone to him many times in life for words of wisdom.  Wish that we could go to him in death.  We would ask those cold lips for some inkling of what he has experienced in death.  We will not hesitate for the answer.  It will not come.  We will have to wait for it, as he had to wait.  Goodby to you.  May your spirit linger in our hearts and minds as long as we have consciousness and when the end of our course is reached stretch out your hand from Glory and help receive us.