Nora "Teeny" Duffy Parks Gibbons
Nora “Teeny” Duffy Parks Gibbons died at her home early on Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2010. She was 91.
She was born and raised in Louisville, Ky., to James T. Duffy and Nora Whiteside. She was the youngest of five children.
She attended Stephens College in 1937 because of her interest in art and horses. After graduating from Stephens, she studied at the University of Iowa from 1939 to 1941.
In 1941, she married George “Bill” Parks. They had three children together. She was a full-time mother until she became a travel agent. When Mr. Parks died in 1979, she went back to painting and studying art in San Miguel, Mexico.
She remarried in 1981, to Eddy Gibbons.
A prolific painter, Mrs. Parks Gibbons had her work exhibited at the Tiger Hotel and the Boone County Historical Society. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Colonial Dames, Kings Daughters, Pi Beta Phi sorority and Sacred Heart Church. Her devotion to her family and its history inspired her to become a genealogist.
Mrs. Parks Gibbons is survived by one son, James Parks; two daughters, Katherine Parks and Elizabeth Parks; one granddaughter, Alexandra Parks; and two stepdaughters, Teresa Gibbons Boyer and Mary Gibbons Norry.
The family said in a press release from the funeral home, “We will be embraced by the beauty she left behind, the strength she had and the great love she gave us all.”
Her memorial Mass will be celebrated at 2 p.m. Monday, Oct. 25, at Sacred Heart Church, 1115 Locust St. in Columbia. Her burial will follow at Columbia Cemetery, 30 E. Broadway.
Contributions can be made to Sacred Heart Church, the American Heart Association, the National Kidney Foundation or Stephens College.
Online tributes can be posted at memorialfuneralhomeandcemetery.com.
