Parker Family, 1950

Bill, Barbara and baby Bob, 1950

How Bill and Barbara Parker Met by Barbara Jean Smith Parker

I met your grampy at a church camp for college age adults at Crestline California. It was love at first sight. He was so cute and had such a winning smile and great personality the I couldn't resist him and so I let him catch me. Our first kiss was, believe it or not, a few days later and from then on it was history. He was just back from the service in WWII and I was a sophmore in college. My girlfriend had her eye on him, but because he was just going to be a freshman she knew he was to young. Well, I knew better. I knew that he had been in the service for three years right out of high school and of course I didn't tell her.
He was going to attend Chapman College and I knew I had to go there too. So I talked to my grandpa and he agreed to pay my tuition. Off I went!! We were meant to be together because after about four weeks, believe it or not, we were married and moved into the quonset huts for married students on the college campus.

We did not have much of a wedding, but it was a nice one in our minister's home with our families there. We had a small wedding cake and then headed off to the mountains for our honeymoon before going back to college.

The rest is history and after 58 years, 3 boys, 13 grandchildren and 22 great grandchildren we are still here and perking along at a pretty good speed.
Life is good and our children are spectactular. Love them all.

Parker boys and the new station wagon, 1957

Purchased for $2300 in 1957, the days before seat belts!

Bill Parker, MA grad at UCLA, 1952 by Barbara Jean Smith Parker

Bill and Bob in 1952.
A long time ago. An exciting day, we made it all the way through and now on to his MA at UCLA and a move from the quonset hut to the barracks on campus at Westwood. David wa just 3 months old and Bob was 2.

Bill, Barbara and boys, 1955

William Lee Parker, Army 1946m by Barbara Jean Smith Parker

This is of Bill (William Lee Parker) in 1946 when he was in the Army Air Corps, before it was the US Air Force. He was stationed in Okinawa for two years. The war was officially over, but there was still a lot of cleanup operations to be done. There were Japanese in the caves and sniper attacks were still going on. Bill was a crew chief on the first jet squadron in the South Pacific. He was pretty handsome don't you think?

Church in Bakersfield, by Barbara Jean Smith Parker

One Sunday we traveled from Torrance to Bakersfield for the dedication of their new church. Bill was in the cradle roll of the old church and his name was in the plaque on the new church.

Milo, Pearl, Bill and Barbara, 1964

An old picture taken in 1964. Pearl (Jessie Rose Potter) and Milo (Dock Potter) are the same age here as we are now! Yes we have grown older. Bill and Barbara on the left.

by Barbara Jean Smith Parker

Bill and Barbara's First Home, by Barbara Jean Smith Parker

I have been taking a writing class on stories about our family. I started with stories about meeting Bill. One of the stories was about our first home. Yes, it was this lavish, luxurious quonset hut on the Chapman College Campus! This was also Bob and David's first home as they were both born while we lived here. You can see diapers hanging on the clothes line and the baby buggy with Bob in it. I look at this picture and see how far we have come. It was fun there, though as the other quonsets had students just like us with babies and we were all poor and knowing that it would't be that way forever.

Bill and Barbara, circa 1958 by Barbara Jean Smith Parker

We were young once! This was taken in Palm Springs where Bill was leading a conference for the Merchants and Manufactures Association in Los Angeles. So this had to be about 1958. We were living 
in Covina at the time, and Bill was driving into Los Angeles for work every day. This was about his last year of working with this Association as he found another job close to home and the opportunity was much better. He and two others started the plant project for Hoffman Electronics in El Monte. This involved building the plant, hiring the workers, etc. In other words, starting from the beginning. The plant was for the growing of solar crystals to be made into solar panels, etc. He was a very busy husband and father as the job required most of his time. It didn't last forever though.