Marsha Lynne Parker

Marsha Lynne Parker, passed away on Saturday, May 13th, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, at the age of 80. She is survived by her son Kelcey Parker, sister Delaine Nicholson, and brother Jeff Nicholson. Marsha was born in Minneapolis, MN, to parents Kathyln Mae and Merle Atwood Nicholson and was the oldest of the three siblings.

Marsha was a child of WWII, born while her father served overseas as a photographer for the US Army. She did not meet him until he returned home from the war and for the first year of her life was raised by her Grandma Lydia, Grandpa Hartwig, and her mom, Kathyln, who was part of the war effort and worked in a factory manufacturing coils for airplanes (she later put the kids through college as an "Avon Lady," a career that lasted 50 years). Marsha spent her childhood evenings and weekends helping her father build the family home in Eden Prairie, MN, carefully observing his attention to detail and sharing his love of architecture and design. The family soon purchased a baby grand piano and Marsha quickly began to master the instrument. She had perfect pitch, incredible dexterity, and a mind for technique and theory. Her passion for piano, music, art, and architecture would continue throughout her life. The house in Eden Prarie was a wonderful place for the kids to grow up: Jeff had a laboratory in the basement and launched model rockets in the front yard, Delaine explored the fields searching for bugs and critters, reading voraciously wherever she landed, and Marsha filled the house with piano melodies and art. Delaine would go on to become an author and editor and now helps run TerraNovaNet, an
Internet and phone service company in the Florida Keys, with her son Travis. Jeff is one of a handful of people on the planet to program compiler code for microchips and supercomputers.

At the University of Minnesota, Marsha was finally able to break free of her rural K-12 educators and immerse herself in creative pursuits at a high level, majoring in art and minoring in music. There she met her husband, Robert "Bob" Parker, an aspiring architect from Denver, CO. They married and moved to Philadelphia where Marsha attended Tyler School of Art and Architecture in order to complete her degree at UMN. She also earned a teaching certificate from Tyler and began teaching elementary grade level art while Bob began his professional career at an architectural firm. Four years later they moved to Philadelphia so Bob could attend MIT and Marsha taught art at a rather rough inner city high school. During her time as an art teacher she saved to purchase a Steinway baby grand piano and continued to mature as a classical pianist, often entertaining friends. In 1970 they moved from Boston to Halifax, Nova Scotia, so Bob could begin teaching at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD). They moved into a traditional cape cod house in St. Margaret's Bay and in 1972 Kelcey was born. Marsha built a custom made adjustable crib, prepared her own baby food, sewed beautiful baby quilts and stuffed toys, and kept a detailed breastfeeding log of her own design.

They divorced when Kelcey was about two years old and Marsha moved into the city to rebuild her life. She began as a bookkeeper for local developer Wilf Keefe before landing a job with the CBC working on a show called Land and Sea. She later "bumped" over to Finance during the Mulrooney era cutbacks. Her professional career at CBC spanned three decades, during which time she purchased her home on Church St. and began renovations.

Marsha will be remembered by many friends and neighbors for her iconic presence on Church St., in Halifax, where she lived for more than 40 years. When Marsha first purchased her home on Church St., it was nothing more than a dilapidated 120 year-old cottage with dirt coming up through the floors, no insulation, and no bathroom. Undaunted by the task of renovating, she took it down to the studs and spent the next 20+ years framing, wiring, drywalling, laying hardwood floor, building door and window frames, laying up siding, trenching, building retaining walls, painting, planting and whatever else was required. She was fearless in her approach to the work and incredibly capable and meticulous in her execution. For many years, she was involved in Neighborhood Watch, community planning groups, and was a regular on Access Cable 10 News where she'd deftly point out flaws in various proposed buildings along the waterfront and in downtown areas. Like many Halifax residents, she was unimpressed by much of the development that took place over the last 20-30 years and saw more value in the preservation of historic buildings and areas.

In her 20s, 30s, and 40s, Marsha visited France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Peru, Columbia, and traveled throughout the US and Canada. In later years, she loved visiting her son Kelcey, daughter-in-law Reagan, and grandson Milo, in Los Angeles. She also loved the US national parks and did a yearly month-long road trip with her mom Kathlyn, sister Delaine, and little brother Jeff. After Kathyln passed at the age of 97, the siblings continued the annual trip, sometimes accompanied by family friend Mark. She loved these excursions, exploring Southwest history, culture and art, and the natural beauty of the parks.

Throughout her life, Marsha's intellectual curiosity never peaked. She was engaged and actively pursuing her interests until the very end. She was immensely knowledgeable regarding history, geography, culture, art, music, architecture, design, and craft. A true Virgo, she was a master planner and list-maker and started every day with a list of projects. Some of her bigger personal projects included developing a course on learning to play the piano, a recipe book, and an archive of her son Kelcey's accomplishments. Skills she accumulated over the years included sewing, knitting (Big Bird leg warmers!!), carpentry, furniture-making, gardening, and beading, to name a few. Marsha was proud of her Scandinavian heritage and cherished the design, recipes, humor, and culture. If it was Scandinavian, it was the best. When it came to Christmas cookies, she was right! Mmmm... Spritz, Snipp, Krumkakes! Saab and Ikea? You decide.

No memorial of Marsha would be complete without celebrating her eccentricities and uncompromising approach to life. She would happily entertain suggestions but in the end Marsha was going to do things her way. When attacked, her counter punch was a knockout and her capacity for a grudge, long-lasting. She held herself and others to a high standard and did not suffer fools. "Good taste" was not subjective to her — friends and family could be quickly called out for indulging in poor quality items or pursuits. Her eclectic personal style began during her beatnik days and continued on... blue and green eyeshadow complimented carefully curated outfits which became more and more colorful in her later years. She wore her idiosyncrasies and eccentricities like oversized jewelry, unabashedly and uncompromisingly. All this was counterbalanced by her boundless kindness and generosity towards those she deemed worthy and deserving.

Summarizing a life in a few paragraphs is not an easy task. Marsha was a beautiful, complicated, and sometimes perplexing character... easily misunderstood by those not willing to invest the time to get to know her. Those who did would agree that Marsha was above all else intelligent, talented, capable, curious, kind, and generous. She will be dearly missed by those who were close to her and remembered for her unique gifts.