PHOTO GALLERY: Former Republican statesman George Parker dies at 86

The reflection of George Parker, the founder of the modern Republican Party in Boone County, appears on the picture of a young Parker with the F-101 Voodoo. During World War II, he flew a B-26 Marauder bomber. The photograph was taken at his home in Columbia on Dec. 11, 2006.   ¦  Missourian file photo

COLUMBIA — George Parker, 86, a former state representative in Boone County and the founder of the Pachyderm Club, died Wednesday in Columbia. When he was elected in 1966, he was the first Republican elected in Boone County since the Civil War and served three terms in the Missouri House of Representatives.

The Pachyderm Club is now a national organization recognized as an auxiliary to the GOP by the Republican National Committee.

The Missouri Republican Party issued a statement calling Parker a "pillar in the Republican Party."