Lois Goodfellow Parker, 97, died early Saturday morning Oct. 31 due to complications of pancreatic cancer. She died in her sleep at Mount Vernon Hospital. She was born Oct. 27, 1912 in Gracemont, Okla. and delivered by her father when the doctor did not arrive in time from town. She was one of seven siblings raised on a farm in the Oklahoma plains.
She attended Oklahoma A&M majoring in music, then briefly taught school in Oklahoma. She was selected to the All-State women’s basketball team when she was a senior in high school and received an offer to play at Oklahoma A&M. In 1934 she was elected Oklahoma State Secretary of the League of Young Democrats by the largest majority vote of any candidate at that time.
She gained notoriety in 1933 when she aided in the capture of the escaped convict, Frank Sawyer. In addition to write ups in the Daily Oklahoman and Oklahoma City Times her exploits in the Sawyer case were also placed in the Associated Press, eliciting a world-wide response including a proposal of marriage from a British army officer stationed in India. She earned the title of "Oklahoma Wildcat" for her capture of the escaped convict. As a result of her notoriety and beauty, she was offered a Hollywood screen test.
She was married to Frederic Thompson Parker, then a captain in the US Army, in December 1940. As a military family they were stationed in various locations including Nassau, Bahamas and Honolulu, Hawaii. The family then settled in Northern Virginia in 1951. She was employed by the Arlington County school system at Wakefield High School from 1954 through 1976.
She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Mayflower Society.
She is survived by her two sons Fred and Jim, three grandsons Charlie, Jonathan and Edward and one great grandson, Spencer.
A visitation was held at Murphy Funeral Home, 4515 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, on Saturday Nov. 7.