Lorna Shannon Black Parmer

Lorna Shannon Black Parmer, 94 years old, was born October 17, 1927, and passed into the hands of the Lord on January 14, 2022, of natural causes.

Services will be at 11:00 A.M., Saturday, January 22, 2022 in Boxwell Brothers Ivy Chapel.  Burial will be in Memorial Park Cemetery.  Arrangements are by Boxwell Brothers Funeral Directors, 2800 Paramount Blvd.

Lorna was born in the Kleberg, TX suburb of Dallas, to Milton Park Black and Nellie Ruth (Wood) Black. She loved spending time with her grandparents, Eulalia and Walter Wood in their East Texas home.

Her parents moved to East Texas, where they farmed.  Although they primarily raised vegetables, she remembered chopping and picking cotton with her parents.

As a teenager, she rode the streetcar into Dallas and worked at the Grand Silver Variety Store. She and other young girls served breakfast to customers. After high school, she attended cosmetology school in Dallas. After completing the course, she rode a train to Austin for her state examination.  The test was in two parts: written and demonstration, where she successfully set hair in various styles.

During WWII, she lived with her sister Jo, and they wrote letters to encourage Jo’s husband, Bill Palmer. One of those letters arrived in Fort Meade, Maryland, to Phil (J. B.) Parmer, where J. B. was awaiting orders to join the troops in Italy.  They began writing to each other every week. When the war ended, J. B. moved to Amarillo and took the Greyhound bus to visit Lorna, his sweet pen pal, in Dallas.   She rode the streetcar to the bus station. They both had big smiles and knew each other immediately. They dated for three weeks, drove back to Amarillo, and married. Lorna’s sister-in-law, Vivan Parmer Christal, was a big support to the newlyweds.

Lorna worked at Vann’s Beauty Salon for several years just off Polk Street with her life-long friend, Chlorita Long. Another dear friend was Juanita Brown, a neighbor who taught her to drive. Her best friend was Dorothy Smith, who raised many children in Pleasant Valley and Hamlet.

Lorna and J. B. built a house in Pleasant Valley and raised two sons, Phill Warren, born in 1949, and Norman Duane, born in 1955.  Lorna was an attentive, stay-at-home mother. She loved God and loved the Scriptures.

The whole family worked on getting licensed as Ham Radio operators. She was one of the few women hams in Amarillo.

Much later, she enjoyed working at Eva’s Women’s Fashion Shop, formerly in Mayco Center. When J. B. retired, they moved to Sunrise Beach, Texas, where she also worked in a women’s fashion shop. She was a long-time member of the Highland Lakes Church of Christ in Kingsland, TX.

She is survived by her son Phill and his wife Mevanee of Amarillo, TX; three grandchildren, Penelope Westwater of the St. Louis area, Shannon Butler and Joseph of greater Philadelphia, and Cory Parmer and Kim Heroy-Rogalski of Davis, CA; and five great-grandchildren: Ben, Garrett, Maria, Jonah, and Cora.

She was preceded in death by her husband, J. B. to whom she was married for 74 years; her parents, Milton and Nellie; her son Norman; her siblings, Jo, Anita, and Buzzy (Milton, Jr.).

The family suggests memorials to the Christian Relief Fund, 1501 SW 58^th Ave, Amarillo, TX 79110.