Memorials

• Publication year: 2023
• Citation: Vol. 46 No. 6 Pg. 66
• Pages: 66

Memorials Vol. 46 No. 6 Pg. 66 Wyoming Bar Journal December 2023

Jerry Parkinson

Jerry Parkinson, 69, passed under a full moon on September 29, 2023. He lived a thousand days after a cancer diagnosis in late 2020, and he'd say all of those days were great days.

Shirley and Jerry Parkinson, Sr. welcomed Jerry and his twin brother Larry on August 29, 1954. They were born in the Murdo, South Dakota, hospital because Doc Sundet from Kadoka was on vacation. The boys' parents, a school teacher and homemaker from Kadoka, already had two boys and were shooting for a girl. The twins made it four boys under the age of four.

The family lived in Kadoka until 1963, when dad Jerry Sr. left teaching to take a state job in Pierre, where the twins started fourth grade. Jerry and his brothers were fortunate to grow up on Hilltop Drive, at the time at the very edge of town and a kids' exploring paradise. The boys also were the beneficiaries of a first-rate education. Whatever success Jerry had in later life he attributed in large measure to the foundation he received in the Pierre public schools, with outstanding teachers and bright, engaged classmates. In addition to his academics, Jerry enjoyed many sports, and tasted both victory and defeat, learning to make lemonade from lemons along the way. When he got cut from the basketball team, he took up wrestling and it became his best sport. When he got cut from the Legion baseball team in the summer, he turned to golf, which he played for the rest of his life. At Riggs High he lettered in football, wrestling, and track and field. His pole vaulting started with a bamboo pole on a dirt lot on Hilltop Drive.

It was also in Pierre that Jerry met the love of his life, Deb Simmons. He learned of the speedster from the west side in elementary school at summer track meets, but they did not date until their senior year of high school. They spent the next 52 years side by side. Jerry passed in their 50th year of marriage.

Jerry attended Northern State College in Aberdeen, where he majored in math and continued his competitive wrestling—becoming a two-time collegiate conference wrestling champion. Fortuitously, Deb was just across town at Presentation College, so their romance continued. They married in 1974, after two years of college, in part so they'd be eligible, as a married couple, for their first major jobs - managing a 400-student coed dormitory for two years at Northern. Jerry earned his B.S...