Helen Parker (1929–2023)

Helen Faye Parker was a legendary high school basketball coach and athletic administrator in Ashdown (Little River County). She spent her entire career working in the Ashdown School District, and the high school’s gymnasium was named the Parker Gym in her honor in 1994.

Helen Faye Park was born on March 18, 1929, in Okolona (Clark County). She was one of three children of Tom Park, who was a teacher, and Belle Tarpley Park. At Henderson State Teachers College (now Henderson State University), she met Maurice Raymond “Buddy” Parker, who had returned to Henderson to complete his education after a three-year stint in the U.S. Army during World War II. The couple married in August 1947 and settled in Ashdown in 1948 when Buddy Parker accepted a coaching position at the town’s high school.

Helen Parker was initially an elementary school teacher, but she often walked to the high school after her school day ended to help her husband. Within a couple of years, she was hired to coach the girls’ basketball team at Ashdown High School. It was the start of a thirty-five-year coaching career that ended only when she became the school’s assistant athletic director.

As the coach of the Ashdown Pantherettes, Parker led the squad to four state championships, with the first coming in 1957. (The team had been runner-up in both 1949 and 1956.) The team also won the sportsmanship trophy in 1957. Under Parker’s tutelage, the team won three state championships in a row in 1968, 1969, and 1970. In 1972, she was named the head coach of the South All-Star Basketball Team.

Parker was not just a basketball coach. Her volleyball teams won numerous championships, and she was named the Outstanding Coach in Volleyball from 1978 to 1981. In both 1981 and 1982, she was named the Outstanding Coach in Girls Athletics. In 1982, she received the Distinguished Service Award from the National Federation of High School Coaches Association, as well as the Curtis King Award from the Arkansas High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1983.

As both a coach and an administrator, Parker was a powerful voice for athletic equity, taking great pride in the ultimately successful campaign to get the Arkansas Athletics Association to allow girls to play in the same sports as boys. Parker was also the sponsor of the school’s cheerleaders. She retired in 1992.

Parker volunteered at the Ashdown Senior Center for two decades, teaching local seniors how to line dance as well as other exercises. She also helped deliver food to seniors. Parker served at one point as president of the Business and Professional Women’s Club of Ashdown, where she also participated in the plays the club produced. As a member of Ashdown’s Methodist Church, she led the Youth Fellowship program for many years.

Parker died on September 6, 2023, after a brief bout with lymphoma. She is interred in the Ashdown Cemetery alongside her husband.

For additional information:
“Little River County Famous Folks—Sports.” Little River County Arkansas Genealogy. https://littlerivercoar.blogspot.com/p/little-river-county-notable-in-sports.html (accessed May 23, 2025).

Obituary of Helen Parker. Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, September 8, 2023. https://www.arkansasonline.com/obituaries/2023/sep/08/helen-parker-2023-09-08/ (accessed May 23, 2025).

William H. Pruden III
Ravenscroft School