<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;">I am sorry to hear about the death of Parrish Williams. I didn't know him personally, but I've heard Kathy talk about him many times. Kathy, let me know if you need anything, and have a safe trip back to OK.<br><br>Dave<br><br>--- On <b>Mon, 10/5/09, Kathleen Shea <i><kdshea@aol.com></i></b> wrote:<br><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"><br>From: Kathleen Shea <kdshea@aol.com><br>Subject: Re: Parrish Williams<br>To: siouan@lists.Colorado.EDU<br>Date: Monday, October 5, 2009, 8:51 PM<br><br><div id="yiv743600637">
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<div><font face="Arial">Thank-you, Bob, for posting this on the Siouan list for me
and, Jill, for your kind comments. I don't have it in me to write much at
this time, but I will try to give a fuller report to the list later. I'll
copy here what I wrote tonight to my family in California to let them know what
has ocurred:</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial"></font>
<div> </div>
<div><em>Parrish Williams--"Uncle" Parrish--passed away Sunday morning
peacefully in his sleep surrounded by family. He was 96. I had just
gotten to Ponca City Saturday night. I went to a prayer meeting led by the
Methodist minister at his home last night, where the funeral will be
Wednesday. There will be an all-night meeting of the Native American
Church at the home Tuesday night. (Uncle Parrish was very ecumenical.) As
is traditional, the funeral takes place on the fourth day, with a feast,
give-away, and a graveside ceremony.</em></div>
<div><em></em> </div>
<div><em>His death was timely but of course still a shock. I am saddened,
will miss him, and learned a lot from him. His family are good people and
treated me very well, accepting me as one of the family. I'm writing this
from Lawrence, where I drove today to try to get my 2008 taxes in the mail, and
I'll drive back down to Ponca City for the supper before the NAC meeting
tomorrow. I just wanted you to know what's happening to me and my
whereabouts. If you want to read his obituary, it should appear in
tomorrow afternoon's Ponca City News at </em><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.poncacitynews.com"><em>www.poncacitynews.com</em></a><em>.
Please spread the word to others if you like, as I'm afraid of leaving someone
out if I try to add more e-mail addresses.</em></div>
<div><em></em> </div>
<div><font face="Arial">Jill, I just want to add that, when I first went to
Oklahoma in the summer of 1994 to start working with Uncle Parrish, he told me
that it was due largely to Grandpa Truman's encouragement and good experience
working with you, Lori Stanley, and Louanna Furbee that he decided to meet me
and ultimately committed himself to working with me as long as I stayed with the
project. He proved to be an extremely intelligent and excellent teacher.
Grandpa Truman was about ten years older than Uncle Parrish and was one of his
mentors. I would say that they were both magnanimous, interested in the
welfare of their people, and true citizens of the world. Another strong
mentor for Uncle Parrish was his grandpa (?) Ed Packhorse, who gave him his
fireplace. Uncle Parrish always aspired to live as long as Grandpa Ed, and
he did! (Grandpa Truman lived to be about the same age as both of them,
too.) I'm very lucky to have had Uncle Parrish as my teacher, friend, and
adopted relative for as long as I have--fifteen years.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial">Kathy</font></div></div>
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 5px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 0px;">
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;">----- Original Message ----- </div>
<div style="background: rgb(228, 228, 228) none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><b>From:</b>
<a rel="nofollow" title="Greer-J@MSSU.EDU" ymailto="mailto:Greer-J@MSSU.EDU" target="_blank" href="/mc/compose?to=Greer-J@MSSU.EDU">Jill Greer</a> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><b>To:</b> <a rel="nofollow" title="siouan@lists.Colorado.EDU" ymailto="mailto:siouan@lists.Colorado.EDU" target="_blank" href="/mc/compose?to=siouan@lists.Colorado.EDU">siouan@lists.Colorado.EDU</a> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><b>Sent:</b> Monday, October 05, 2009 11:38
AM</div>
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><b>Subject:</b> Re: Parrish Williams</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br>And a truly wonderful human being. </div>
<div> </div>
<div>I count it one of the privileges of my life to have met Parrish and
been a guest in his tipi. </div>
<div> </div>
<div>One of our Iowa elders, Arthur Lightfoot had an adoptive relation to
Parrish's late wife, so that was the context for initially meeting
him. He and Grampa Truman Dailey (Otoe-Missouria) were called upon
to fly to Portland (?) to testify for Sen. Inouwe's committee on
religious freedom after the Smith vs. Oregon case, and both of these elder
roadman's testimonies appear in the wonderful Kifaru Production
documentary <em>Peyote Road</em>. He was also featured in
Alice Anderton's "Word Path" program, which was such a wonderful episode
I often use it in my classes. </div>
<div> </div>
<div>Jill </div>
<div><br>>>> "Rankin, Robert L" <rankin@ku.edu> 10/5/2009 10:41
AM >>><br>All,<br><br>Kathy Shea sends the sad news that Parrish
Williams has died. He was a fluent Ponca speaker, a tribal elder and an
important figure in the Native American
Church.<br><br>Bob<br></div></blockquote></div></blockquote></td></tr></table><br>