World War II veteran George Parkinson is remembered as a survivor for having endured a year in a German prisoner-of-war camp, but he also is known for his hard work and his devotion to his family.
Mr. Parkinson, 90, died Tuesday at Greenwood Leflore Hospital.
Services were at 2 p.m. today at Wilson & Knight Fun-eral Home, with visitation beginning at 1 p.m.
Mr. Parkinson, a native of West, retired from the Greenwood Park Commission in 1985 after 30 years of service to the city and also had worked for the Mississippi Highway Patrol and the Greenwood Police Department.
He was the last surviving member of the crew of his B-17 Flying Fortress during World War II.
His bomber crew was headed for Berlin in 1944 when it was attacked by German fighters, and 13 of the formation’s 21 bombers were lost quickly. In a 2003 interview with the Commonwealth, he said he still couldn’t remember how he got out of his plane because he lost consciousness, but he awoke in a free fall at around 2,000 feet above the earth and pulled his parachute’s rip cord.
On impact, he suffered a contusion of his spine, and his right eye was punctured. He then saw members of the Hitler Youth approaching, and one had a rifle.
“If it had been just me and him, he would have bashed my head in,” Mr. Parkinson said. “But another one said, ‘Nicht, nicht, nicht’ and pushed him back.”
Parkinson stayed at a POW camp as an orderly, subsisting on a diet mainly of soup and Irish potatoes. Russian Army units liberated the camp in 1945. He told the Commonwealth that the Germans abided by the Geneva Convention and he was never mistreated.
Marsh Pickett, a former Leflore County veterans services officer and fellow World War II veteran, said Mr. Parkinson was a “soldier’s man” and “a wonderful individual.”
“He only knew one way, and that was to do it right,” Pickett said.
He also was very attentive to details, and that served him well both in the military and in his other jobs, Pickett said.
In the Highway Patrol, for example, if he was patrolling a certain area and someone there broke the law, he could be counted on to catch the offender, Pickett said.
When he oversaw the city’s parks, he worked hard to keep them up to par, and “if you had a problem, you could call day or night and he’d take care of it,” Pickett said.
Mr. Parkinson also was a member of North Greenwood Baptist Church for 50 years and a member of the Greenwood Masonic Lodge.
Dr. Jim Phillips, pastor at North Greenwood Baptist, said Mr. Parkinson was “the consummate caregiver” — very independent and reluctant to accept help from others. While he was raising three daughters, “he was outnumbered, but he was never out-spoken,” Phillips said.
At one time years ago, Mr. Parkinson was caring for his mother and his mother-in-law simultaneously while also maintaining three gardens — one at each of their homes in addition to his own.
“He really didn’t want anybody to help take care of him or his family,” Phillips said.
Eventually, as his health failed, he had to yield that responsibility, but he hated to do it, Phillips said. He already had dealt with the loss of his eye, which was briefly restored with the help of a Veterans Administration hospital but later failed completely. “But it didn’t slow him down,” Phillips said.
Mr. Parkinson’s spirit will live on through his family, Phillips said.
“All three of his daughters are somehow affiliated with church work today, and that speaks highly of them,” he said. “He brought them up well, and they’ll continue to carry his legacy.”
• Contact David Monroe at dmonroe@gwcommonwealth.com.
