Teacher. Mentor. Insightful community leader.
Creator. Actor. Writer.
A staunch advocate for the arts, former longtime Walla Wallan Parke Thomas left a memorable mark center stage, part of it before theater audiences. To the shock and dismay of his family and huge cast of friends and former students, he exited too soon, felled on May 29, 2024, by health challenges including diabetes. He was 69.
Many of his efforts wrapped around theater where he appeared onstage and worked behind the scenes. He and his canine companion Oliver invigorated the Quail Run Retirement Community in Walla Walla for a decade. During that time he relished writing newsletter “Tails from the City, The Quail Times.
” Ollie, who has the look of a Yorkshire terrier with brown, white and black features, was a familiar greeter at Quail Run where as its manager Parke hosted many dining and entertainment events open to the community and Ollie greeted visitors and residents. “I’m not sure who rescued who: Ollie or Parke,” said his friend Kathy Conry of Manhattan, New York. A fast friendship formed after Parke’s brother Jeff Thomas found the tiny canine “abandoned, bedraggled and alone,” nearly submerged in mud.
A vet said Ollie was about 6 months old. Jeff gave him to Parke. “Ollie’s the sweetest little dog I ever knew,” Conry said.
“He has the best dog stories since ‘Lassie Come Home.’ ” Former Walla Wallan Phyllis Bonds, now of Bellevue, Washington, said like Conry, she and Parke b.