Cyril F. "Cy" Parks 1924-2011

PARKS HORSTMAN

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 3/25/2011 at 22:18:36

Sioux City Journal
6 January 2011

SIOUX CITY -- Cyril F. "Cy" Parks, 86, of Rogers, Ark., formerly of Sioux City died Jan. 2, 2011, at Mercy Medical Center in Rogers.

Services will be 10 a.m. Friday at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Rogers, with Monsignor David LeSieur officiating. Burial will be in Rogers Cemetery. Visitation will be 5 to 7 p.m. today, Jan. 6, 2011, with a rosary at 7 p.m., in the chapel of Callison-Lough Funeral Home in Rogers. Online condolences may be made at www.callisonloughfuneralhome.com.

He was born in Sioux City, on May 19, 1924, the son of Phillip Arthur Parks and Mary Louise Parks. He graduated from East High School in Sioux City in 1941. His post-secondary studies at DeVry Institute were interrupted by service with the U.S. Naval Air Corps during World War II. Cy was in pilot training when the Navy's improved rescue techniques led to more pilots than planes. He was then trained as an artificer of devices at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. He then maintained Link Trainers and provided technical support for demonstrations to the public at the RCA building in New York City. Later in the war, he drove a truck around New York City, once picking up V2 materials at a dock to deliver to a mansion where he inadvertently witnessed scientists just-rescued from captivity in Germany.

He was married to his high school sweetheart, June Horstman on May 30, 1945. After the war, he helped develop the use of a Link trainer to certify pilots for radar landing approach at the Sioux City airbase. He received an honorable discharge from the National Guard on Jan. 5, 1946. He worked a short time with Burroughs Corporation maintaining office calculators and mechanical computers. He was a fireman and engineer for the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad for 17 years. Mr. Parks and his family ran one of the last successful variety stores in Sioux City, the Court St. Variety. He retired in 1974, then moved to Rogers, Ark. in 1977. After the death of June Parks, he married Evelyn Holmes in 1998.

Cy was known to amateur (Ham) radio operators around the world as K0BNG, and also held a commercial first class Radio Telephone Operator's license from the FCC. He was active in the Sioux City Lions Club, and president of the Rogers Lions Club from 1982 to 1983. Mr. Parks was named a Melvin Jones Fellow by Lions Clubs International in 1991. During his retirement he was known as the real Santa Claus to many children, families, and schools in the Rogers area.

Cy Parks was a member of the Catholic church. Cy was a longtime member of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Sioux City. Since he moved to Rogers in 1977, that membership was at either St. Vincent de Paul in Rogers or St. Stephen's in Bentonville, Ark.

Cyril is survived by his wife, Evelyn Parks; five children from his first marriage, Paul Parks and wife, Janet and their son Charles, James Parks and his wife, Kathy and their children, John, Jerry, and Julie and husband, Danny and their child, Emma, Tom Parks and wife, Beth and their children, Michelle, Shannon, and Eric, Carol Whisenhunt and husband, Mark, and Mary Bushnell and husband, Paul and their children, David, Jacob, Sarah, Laura, and Kathy Graves and husband, Bryan and their child, James; a sister, Mrs. Robert (Mary Lou) Middleton of Cupertino, Calif.; and brother, Francis Parks of Sacramento, Calif.

He is preceded in death by two brothers, Gerald and Howard; a grandson, Robert son of Paul and Janet.