Ida Cook Klages
May 24, 1919 — November 19, 2015
She was born May 24, 1919, in Columbus, MS, to Hazel Vandiver Cook and William Harvey Cook, and went home to Three Oaks, near the village of Artesia, in Lowndes County. She grew up there with her two younger brothers, attended local schools and was the valedictorian of her high school class. She was graduated from Mississippi State College for Women in 1940, after which she took up her career as a teacher. She taught at S. D. Lee High School in Columbus and in the Delta town of Dublin, MS where she met her future husband, Chalmers L. Parr, a fellow faculty member, later an officer in the U.S. Army. They had two children, Vandy and Larry. After his service-related death in 1952, she continued to teach high school in Covington, TN and returned to Mississippi to teach and pursue a master’s degree at Mississippi State University. After receiving the degree she married Roy Arthur Klages, and moved with her children and his daughter Mary to Missouri, where she taught at Kirkwood H.S. as he was teaching and pursuing a Ph.D. at St. Louis University. The family moved to Bloomfield Township, Michigan, in 1959, where she and Dr. Klages both taught at the University of Detroit. They moved again in 1964 when her husband accepted a position at the State University of NY at Albany. They continued to live in the Albany area until poor health necessitated a move to Teresian House. After five years there, Ida was widowed again in 2008, and moved to North Carolina to be near her daughter Vandy. Ida was always involved in church and in civic organizations, and was a member of CAR and NSDAR. After her retirement in 1965 she became very active in the National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution’s General Peter Gansevoort Chapter, serving as Chaplain and Regent. She won the national award for service to American veterans for her development and implementation of a program to address the needs of women veterans in Veterans Administration hospitals. In NC she became a member of the Caswell-Nash chapter, NSDAR.
She is survived by a brother, Manning Vandiver Cook (Pearl) of Ft. Worth, TX, son Laurence Landon Parr (Rebecca) of Stuart, FL, daughters Frances Vandiver Parr Duffield Bradow of Raleigh, NC, and Mary Klages Kinley (William) of Ann Arbor, MI, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
A funeral service will be held at Artesia United Methodist Church, Artesia, MS, at 2 :00 PM on Monday November 23, 2015, and burial will follow in the church cemetery. A gathering of friends and relatives will take place in the church immediately following the burial. A memorial service will also be held at Community United Church of Christ, Raleigh, NC, at a later date. Arrangements are being handled by Memorial Funeral Home, Columbus, MS.
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