Staff Reports
It is 25 years since Marion Parks and his late wife, Pat, resolved to wrest some small bit of good from a family tragedy.
Since then, their decision has generated about $150,000 in scholarship money and has helped dozens of area students attending Three Rivers College.
The Parks' son, Tommy, was killed in an auto accident in 1993. He had been a Three Rivers College student and had loved playing pool. The Parkses and Tom Newman, a family friend and proprietor of Newman Amusement Inc. in Poplar Bluff, decided to hold a pool tournament in Tommy's memory to raise scholarship money.
"No way did I think the tournament would last longer than that first year," says Marion Parks.
He credits the tournament's long life to support from sponsors Newman Amusement and Luecke Distributing Co. and to the loyalty of tournament players - 70 to 80 percent of whom return year after year, according to Parks. He also credits the support of American Legion Post 153, where the tournament is held.
The Tommy Parks Memorial Scholarship, administered by the Three Rivers Community College Foundation, goes annually to deserving TRC students, with preference given to single parents.
This year's pool tournament was held the second week of February and raised $3,400.
"We're so pleased the project has lasted this long," says Tom Newman. "It fills a need at the college and helps single parents know they can achieve their goals."
An example is this year's recipient, Brenda Hampton, of Poplar Bluff, who will receive $1,000 to help underwrite her nursing studies.
Hampton, a 42-year-old mother of two, graduated from Kennett High School in 1995. She currently works in the cafeteria at the Veterans Administration hospital in Poplar Bluff but plans to become a registered nurse.
"God has blessed me as a mother with two beautiful daughters that amaze me every day.... I believe God will give me the opportunity to achieve this (nursing) objective," Hampton wrote in her application essay.
Hampton began her basic, pre-requisite courses at TRC in January. "I will do what it takes to become a registered nurse. Whatever happens, I have the determination and the ambition to achieve this goal," she wrote.
Hampton's younger daughter is 17 and is starting cosmetology training. Her elder daughter, 24, is a medical technician working in Columbia. Did she get her interest in medicine from mom?
"Could be," Hampton, said with a smile. "Becoming a nurse is just part of who I am."