Norma Jean (Daniel) Parsons, of Sweet Springs, passed away Saturday, June 11, 2022, at the Good Shepherd Care Community in Concordia.
Born April 8, 1931, to Edgar Daniel and Katharine (Kennedy) Daniel of Sweet Springs, Jean attended Elder Ridge School and graduated from Sweet Springs High School before attending Warrensburg Teachers College. In 1949 she married Clay Parsons, living for a time in St. Louis and Golden, Colo., while he finished school. Jean worked for McDonnell-Douglas Aircraft, supporting her husband through his schooling with income and regular meals as well as typing, editing, and drafting services. Jean shared her husband’s love of rocks and adventure and enjoyed the often hard life of a geologist’s wife. In 1955, she accompanied Clay to Venezuela where she kept house in oil camps and raised her daughters Leslie (husband Carl) Harman and Larkin (husband Jon) Vilven. In 1962 she moved her small family to Ankara, Turkey, adding Marshall (wife Terry) Parsons. She mastered Turkish, buying food for the family in local markets and taking milk delivery from a man making his rounds with a donkey. Then, in 1968 it was on to Tripoli, Libya, now adding a daughter, Amy (husband Andrew) Kazanas. Jean waged war on vipers, scorpions and two-day dust storms that left three-foot drifts of sand on the front door step. In 1972 Jean and Clay returned to Venezuela and in 1976 moved to Evergreen, Colo. To cap this career, in 1980, Jean moved to Jakarta, Indonesia, her favorite assignment of all. Through it all she made a home for her family what
Through it all she made a home for her family whatever the circumstances. Sewing her children’s clothes, making do with local market food, and building a surprising proficiency in four languages. The hardship was more than offset as Jean was able to indulge her love of local arts and crafts. She delighted in the simple and utilitarian: wooden boxes, iron tools, reed baskets. Once, when trading with a northern Thai member of a Karin tribe, Jean convinced the woman to sell her the clothes she was wearing. And she was an artist in her own right, producing fabric images of Missouri farm life and Venezuelan street scenes, which she shared in a Caracas gallery show.
In 1984 Jean returned full circle to a Sweet Springs farm, starting the Country Cousins Antique business she operated for 20 years with her niece, Kathy Trautman. She is survived by her brother, Eddie Daniel, her children noted previously, grandchildren Matthew and Alice Harman; Kelly Hanes; Emily, Molly, Lynn, Henry and Oliver Parsons; and Kathryn Kazanas; as well two great-grandchildren, Zoe and Audra MacDicken, and numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her sister, Rebecca (Daniel) Higgins.
Jean will be interred at the South Fork Cemetery alongside Clay, her beloved husband of 67 years. Visitation is scheduled for mid-July at Campbell-Lewis Funeral Home (Sweet Springs) with the specific date to be announced later in order to permit her far flung family to return home and celebrate the woman whose quiet grace and gentle love made their lives possible.
Friends may sign the online register book at www.campbell-lewis.com.
