Obituary of Susan Marie Parks

Our beloved mother, Susan Marie Parks, born May 2nd 1959, passed away peacefully on June 10th 2019.

Celebration of Life: 10:30 a.m. Monday, July 1, 2019 at the Rush Creek Church 2350 SW Green Oaks Blvd, Arlington, TX 76017.

She loved the high desert landscape and the mountains and decided that she would be interred there after she was given her terminal diagnoses.

She wished for everyone who can to share in the beauty of the Santa Fe Cemetery and to visit her final resting place and meet her wonderful and caring staff who became her second family.

In lieu of flowers, mom has asked that a donation be made to the Santa Fe National Cemetery Support Foundation (santafencsf.org)

Mom was born in Chicago, Illinois to Joseph and Dolores Wasko, the fifth of seven children. She graduated from Saint Scholastica Academy in 1977 and joined the Navy. She spent time stationed in Italy where she met our father, Bruce, and gained a love of travel. She earned the rank of Radioman 2nd Class and was discharged in 1981 after four years of honorable service. They moved several times in the next few years from North Carolina where Therese was born, to Hawaii where Jason was born, to Virginia before eventually settling in Texas. She began working at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in 1992 and left in 2007 to pursue her dream of working more closely with Veterans. She worked with the VA helping with substance abuse support and recovery groups in Chicago and then Germany at Stuttgart Army Airfield. She loved traveling across Europe while stationed in Germany and brought her eclectic European/Texan hybrid sense of style back with her when she again found her way back to Texas in Big Spring. It was in Big Spring that she applied for and was accepted to the Nation Cemetery Association Cemetery Director Intern Training Program. In 2015, she found her true calling when she graduated the program and became a National Cemetery Director. She oversaw operations in Arizona and South Carolina before making Santa Fe National Cemetery her home.

Mom was preceded in death by her father Joseph Wasko and sister Catherine Wendling.

She is survived by her mother Dolores Wasko, her sisters: Therese Valenti, Janet Fornelli, Cindy Weiss and husband Mike, Carol Koop with husband Dennis, her brother: Joseph Wasko, her children: Therese Begole and husband Tim, Jason Parks and wife Crystal, her grandchildren: Timothy, Jack, Ashlyn and Boston, along with her nieces and nephews and extended family.