Obituary: Samuella (Sammy) Mae Parker

Samuella Mae Grimmesey was born to Walter and Gladys Grimmesey on August 25, 1931, in Oakland, California. Growing up, her sister Patty would play the piano and Sammy would sing. She had a beautiful voice and was encouraged by her teachers to keep singing.

After graduating high school she attended college until she married and started her family in Southern California. After a brief move to West Texas, she moved back to California until the mid-1960s when she settled in the Pacific Northwest. Late in 1970, when her children were adults, she moved to Southeast Alaska to work in a logging camp a...