Joan Parsons

Joan Washburn Parsons, 80, died August 23, 2014, of complications from COPD. Although she spent most of her adult life living in North Carolina, she died in Northport, Alabama, where she had been living with and near her daughter.
Raised in Decatur, GA, by her parents, Ralph and Gladys Washburn, Joan Washburn was an only child.She attended Girls High in Decatur, and earned a B.S. in Mathematics from Georgia State University in January 1956. She married Jack Parsons in August 1955, and they spent the first two years of their marriage living in Germany and travelling in Europe. When they returned to the United States, Mrs. Parsons became a math teacher, and taught in Pickens, SC, while her husband finished his degree. After seven years teaching in the Philadelphia, PA, public schools, Mrs. Parsons moved with her family to Brevard, NC, in 1968. She touched many lives as an eighth grade math and science teacher at Brevard Middle School and other schools in the area. In the 1990s, Mrs. Parsons traveled extensively with her husband. She cruised down the Yangtze before the Three Gorges Dam was completed, bicycled in rural Ireland, and even rode a camel in the Sahara desert in Morocco! They especially loved Oaxaca, Mexico. Mrs. Parsons volunteered at the Shop of St. Philip's in Brevard for several years. She was an interesting, generous person, and a loving and caring wife, mother, daughter-in-law, companion, and friend.

Mrs. Parsons is survived by her daughter, Laura Parsons, of Northport, AL. She was preceded in death by her husband, Jack, in September 2004, and her daughter, Linda Parsons, in March 2004.
A memorial service is planned for Mrs. Parsons at St. Philips Episcopal Church in Brevard, NC, on Friday, August 29, 2014, at 11:00 am. Burial will be private. Mrs. Parsons' family would especially like to thank the nurses and staff at Glen Haven Health and Rehab for the care they gave her and her family at the end of her life, and her hospice team from SouthernCare, who helped ease her transition.
Memorials in lieu of flowers may be made to The Foundation of St. Philip's Episcopal Church Memorial Fund, 56 E. Main St., Brevard, NC 28712, to Heifer.org, or to the charity of your choice.