PARROTT, Louis G. 1863-1911

PARROTT, FIELD, ROEBUCK

Posted By: S. Bell
Date: 1/11/2013 at 00:58:45

Louis G. "Lou" Parrott

DEATH OF EDITOR LOUIS G. PARROTT

A STRENUOUS LIFE OF PUBLIC
BENEFIT CEASES TO EARTH
SUDDENLY BY HEART DISEASE

A Lovable and Kindly Spirit Goes Out
From Waterloo Which He Had
Helped and Awakened
During Life.

At 9:00 o'clock yesterday morning Louis Gilbert Parrott, newspaper man, manufacturer and public spirited citizen, passed to his final accounting, leaving a record of loyalty to home, friends and associates; of espousal of public benefits and challenge of public wrongs; of sane, conservative and. systematic thought and expression for the public's best interests as he saw them and, in fact, a studious regard to his duties as a citizen, advisor and exponent of public policies and civic growth; employer, tax payer and head of a family of which any one might justly be proud and in which his widow, children and those related by ties of blood and business, more or less equally share.

His death is a public loss, its announcement a distinct shock, its effect wide-spread and saddening. What he was to the city is best told in his offices of trust; what to his friends and acquaintances in the tributes paid him on every hand by high and lowly and in that to everyone who knew him he was "Lou;" in spite of his position socially, mentally and financially.

His death is another tribute to the age of speed mania. He lived at too great tension and disease which ever seeks the weakened point in the defense, found in his heart a place overstrained and with insidious energy, aided by his ambition and love of work, battered at it till it gave and the engine stopped, worn out not rusted, and under less strenuous environment, good for many years of as good, perhaps even better work, than that accomplished.

The first real hint of the approaching end came Thursday afternoon, January 19, last, while sitting at his desk at the close of the day's labors, when an attack of heart failure, complicated with pneumonia and general giving way of the system occurred, the culmination of the lesions indicated in numerous ways for several weeks preceding.

As the engine did not fully stop it pushed on gathering false momentum and fictitious speed, hut the damage was done and though he became optimistic and cheerful the attending physician realized that recovery would be little less than a miracle. Yesterday morning the last stroke of the piston, the last revolution of the wheel of conscious thought occurred and failure of compensation in valvular heart disease closed his earthly career.

Louis G. Parrott was born in Davenport, Iowa, December 2, 1863, the second son of the Hon. Matt Parrott and his wife, Frances M. and was brought to Waterloo, March 5, 1869, his father taking charge of The Waterloo Reporter at that time.

The late editor was a pupil in the Waterloo schools graduating from the East High in 1879 and at once entering the ranks on his father's paper, he began at the bottom, mastered the business and upon his father's decease, which occurred April 21, 1900, he became in name what for a year or two previously he had been in a greater or less degree in fact, editor of the Reporter and in that position made his paper a power in the state and in influence in civic improvement and state betterment equaled by few and hardly ever surpassed. In connection with this special work may be evidenced, the women's clubs and municipal rights associations, state road improvements and the Blackhawk River to River road and like matters originating with or finding in him one of their strongest exponents and advocates. For these and other like things Waterloo loved him and the state did him honor.

He married May 29, 1888, Miss Aura Roebuck in Waterloo and she with two children, Marjorie, aged 18 and Matt, aged 4, survive him as immediate family, mother. Mrs. Matt Parrott, two brothers, W. F. Parrott, president and general manager and J. S. Parrott, secretary of the Matt Parrott & Sons Co., of which deceased was vice president.

A Mason, an Elk and an Eagle, he was an earnest fraternity man yet in this as in other associations never a seeker of office or desirous of ephemeral honors. One term he served as Exalted Ruler of Waterloo lodge B. P. O. E. but that comprehends his official services.

From boyhood he had belonged as a member to Christ's Episcopal Church and the funeral services which will be held Friday at 1:30 p.m. will be held from this church, the pastor, Rev. Hinkle, officiating.

Elks. Masons and other organizations to which he belonged will attend the funeral each in a body and the last service at the grave will be presided over by the Knights Templar.

[Waterloo Times-Tribune, Thursday, February 02, 1911, Waterloo, Iowa]
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Burial: Fairview Cemetery, Waterloo, Iowa
Parents: Matt Parrott (1837 - 1900) and Frances M. Field Parrott (1841 - 1927)

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