Beverly Sue Parker

Beloved wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, aunt, friend, and prayer warrior Beverly Sue (Smith) Parker gained her heavenly reward on Sunday, February 9. She was 85 years old.

Love and compassion characterized Beverly’s life from beginning to end. At birth, her biological mother chose adoption, giving Beverly to loving parents Lloyd and Myra Smith. Throughout her childhood, Beverly made friends and kept them close, loving them completely and maintaining many of those friendships for the rest of her life. She married the love of her life, Leon Parker, at age 17, and they quickly started a family of five: Jody Lynn in 1958, Douglas Leon in 1960 , and Terrel Richard in 1962. Her love for her family was the foundation for all of them as they embarked upon their lives together.

At age 20, Beverly learned that she was adopted when a biological brother noticed her name in Doug’s birth announcement. This discovery gave her a whole new family to love through her natural mother, Vernell (Dyer) Rodden, and her sons. Her brothers and their wives became lifelong best friends. Later, through ancestry research, she learned she actually had sixteen siblings, many of whom she felt blessed to meet after her 80th birthday.

Leon and Beverly started their family in Shawnee, but through Leon’s business ventures and eventual calling to the ministry, they called many places home. They landed permanently in Topeka, in 1966, where they served the Lord in Lawrence, McFarland, Topeka, and Lyndon, Kansas. While Leon preached, Beverly served in essentially almost every capacity a church could need: Sunday School teacher, women’s director, Bible Study leader, children’s director, treasurer, worship leader-- if there was a need, she would fill it. Leading the Ladies Group that met in her home weekly for the past decade was her proudest, most fulfilling ministry role; those women gave her such meaningful purpose and companionship in the years after Leon passed.

Throughout her years as a pastor’s wife, she also ran a n independent daycare from their home for 30 years. Hundreds of children stayed in Beverly’s care during their most formative years, and she made it her life’s mission to show those babies Jesus through meals, potty-training, and discipline. Many of Bev’s Babes - the name she coined when she applied for her license - continued to call or visit her over the years as a testament to her influence on their lives, even in these last weeks of her life.

Beverly and Leon’s 57-year-long marriage brought three children, ten grandchildren, and twenty-eight great-grandchildren. Their testimony of God’s faithfulness lives on in the lives of these families whom they taught to love God first, family second, and all of God’s people with the same compassion, grace, and love Beverly had been given since birth.

The family will greet friends from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 13, 2025 at Penwell-Gabel Mid-Town Chapel, 1321 SW 10th Ave., Topeka, KS 66604. 

In lieu of flowers, donations in Beverly’s memory can be made to the New Hope Food Pantry, which she not only helped create but also to which she devoted innumerable hours a s a member of the Board of Directors, 7727 NW Nickell Road, Topeka, KS 66618 in c/o Sandi Cox. Services will Be held on Friday, February 14, at 1:30 p.m. at Penwell-Gabel Midtown Chapel, 1321 SW 10th Ave., Topeka, KS 66604.

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