Don Parsons remembered for lifelong love of baseball

Don Parsons, Sonoma resident and longtime former owner of Parsons Lumber and Hardware, died at his home on Sept. 24. He was 96.

Don is remembered as a good friend and loving husband, father and grandfather – and, in almost equal measure, an avid baseball fan, according to those closest to him.

“Just genuinely a good, nice human being,” described his longtime friend Alan Medina. “Don was very much a part of Sonoma Valley.”

Donald Frank Parsons was born Jan. 19, 1925 in Anderson, California to Vernon and Marguerite Parsons. In 1934, the family moved to Walnut Creek, where Don and his younger brother, Bob, attended elementary school. In 1942, Don graduated from Acalanes High School in Lafayette, where he played on the school’s inaugural two baseball teams – early forays onto the “diamond” that would forever cement his love and passion for America’s pastime.

Don entered the Army in 1943, serving three years in the Medical Corps as a surgical technician and clerk-typist, his family said. After discharge, Don attended Sacramento City College and then Sacramento State University, where he played for its first two baseball teams.

The Parsons family came to the Sonoma Valley in 1950 to take over the operation of their recently purchased Boyes Hot Springs business, Valley Lumber, which they rechristened Parsons Lumber and Hardware. After graduating from Sacramento State, Don joined the growing family business and, soon after, his brother Bob came on board as well.

Don married Joyce Walling in 1963; the Sonoma Valley High School graduate was 17 years his junior. “We shared many of the same qualities,” Joyce told the Index-Tribune. “Fifty-seven years later, the rest is history.”

The couple had two children, Deborah and Donald Jr., who shared their Dad’s passion for athletics. “Don and Joyce rarely missed their children’s games, from 8 years old through college,” family members said in an announcement of Don’s death. (Tragedy earlier struck the Parsons in 2006, when Deborah died from a brain tumor, a devastating blow for the family.)

In 1982, the Parsons sold the hardware store, though they never entirely walked away from the business they loved – staying on to work at the store through two changes in ownership.

“(Don) worked in the office with us from the time we bought the business,” said Alan Medina who, together with wife Helen, purchased Parsons Lumber and Hardware in 1988. Medina said Don was “a big part of our back-office operation” until he retired two years ago.

“He felt he was slowing down – as you would expect from somebody 95,” said Medina.

Throughout his life Don was an avid sportsman, playing organized ball practically every year from ages 12 to 78; in his later years he played in several Senior Softball World Series games, according to family members.

“He would come to work with his uniform because he was on two or three teams each season and needed to leave in time to get to the game,” recalled Medina. “In his early 70s, he would leave the store and go out down the back ramp and run backward to his car just to keep sharp.”

In a 2017 letter to the Index-Tribune, Don Parsons wrote about his love for playing ball at Arnold Field in Sonoma.

“I played in the first softball game there, in 1952 – Our Resort vs. Tiny’s Hut from Walnut Creek – and I continued there another 30 years,” he wrote.

Joyce Parsons said his enthusiasm went beyond baseball – “He was just sports everything.”

“It’s a very quiet house right now,” she told the Index-Tribune this week. “The TV’s not on, the radio’s not on. That was Don.”

When Don died Sept. 24, he was where he wanted to be – at home with his wife and beloved family dogs nearby.

Joyce described that morning.

Don was sitting in his wheelchair “watching the squirrels and birds” through a window, when she went to his room to make his bed. He began coughing and, when she came out, his lips were blue.

Joyce “had a feeling he was leaving.”

She and a caregiver called for first responders to help them move him to the comfort of his bed.

“The firefighters walked in the house, five or six guys in Don’s room,” said Joyce. “I was kneeling on the side of the bed and I started singing, ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game.’”

Suddenly, everyone in the room joined her in song.

“Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack – I don’t care if I never get back,” they all sang.

Then one of the firefighters caught Joyce’s eye and pointed down to a tattoo on his arm — it said, “San Francisco Giants.”

“And then it was over, it was just over,” said Joyce.

“I will remember that forever.”

Don was predeceased by his daughter Deborah, and is survived by his wife Joyce of Sonoma, Don Jr. (and wife Sue) of Mill Valley, son-in-law Tony Roth of Novato, and grandchildren Zack Parsons, Tanner Roth and Malia Parsons.

No funeral service is planned. Donations in his memory may be made to Pets Lifeline, PO Box 341, Sonoma CA, 95476; or Golden Gate Labrador Rescue, 12 River Vista Court, Novato, CA, 94945.

Email Jason Walsh at jason.walsh@sonomanews.com.