Knowing her husband Alton Brooks "Bud" Parker Jr. had to fly 100 missions in the Vietnam War before his tour was over, his wife would count them down by cutting out little paper planes and taping them to a wall in her house.
And when he finally returned home, Mary Esther Parker said, "I was about as happy as I'd ever been. I was always worried."
Alton Parker Jr., a sixth-generation Floridian, would go on to become an attorney, serve as Hillsborough County property appraiser and help establish the county's first drug court program.
Still, his wife said, it was flying that defined him.
"Flying was his first love," she said, adding with a chuckle, "and maybe his greatest love."
Mr. Parker died March 9. He was 87.
"He had quite the life," Mary Esther Parker said.
In 1845, his great-great-grandfather John Parker was named Hillsborough County's first sheriff while living in Arcadia.
"Hillsborough in those days went all the way out there," his wife said.
Mr. Parker was also born and raised in Arcadia, where he became known as "Bud."
"It was a term of endearment," his son Judson Parker said. "He was everyone's little buddy."
Among those he'd befriend were Air Force pilots training at Arcadia's Carlstrom Field during World War II. His family would have them over for holiday meals. And with money earned through his paper route, he paid them for flying lessons.
"I can't imagine they charged him much," his wife said. "He was about 13 or 14 when they taught him to fly."
He would later join the U.S. Air Force. While stationed in Alabama, he met his future wife.
And when Mr. Parker was transferred to Oklahoma to train pilots, he would check out a plane every week to fly back to Alabama for a date.
"Instead of a car he used a plane to come see me," his wife said with a laugh. "And we were later married. It lasted 62 years."
He served 21 years in the military, working with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Vernon Walters, the general and diplomat. He had stops in Texas, Georgia, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C., where he served in the Pentagon as a lieutenant colonel, then settled down in Tampa.
In 1975, he joined the law firm now known as Macfarlane Ferguson & McMullen, developing expertise in property taxation.
He left private practice when Gov. Bob Graham named him Hillsborough County property appraiser in 1986. He failed in his bid for election three years later after instituting an unpopular practice — reassessing property values every year.
After leaving the military, he rarely flew again.
"Several of his friends flew for Pan Am," Judson Parker said. "My dad's attitude was, 'Why fly a bus? It's not the same thrill.' He went out on top."
Longtime friend David Boggs, a shareholder at Macfarlane Ferguson & McMullen, recalled how early in their legal career together, Mr. Parker obtained a radio broadcast of a Vietnam mission over Haiphong harbor.
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Explore all your options"He played it for me," Boggs said. "It was chaos on the radio."
You could hear Mr. Parker's wing man Tom Johnson yell over the radio, "Roll."
"Bud rolled," Boggs said. "Bud said the missile was so close he could read the markings on it as it went by."
Mr. Parker never told his family that story.
A memorial service was held Monday at St. John's Episcopal Church. There, Boggs overheard someone mention he was once Mr. Parker's wing man. It was Tom Johnson.
Boggs persuaded him to tell the story of his close-call to those listening.
"It's like Bud put them together that day," Mary Esther Parker said. "What a story."
Contact Paul Guzzo at pguzzo@tampabay.com. Follow @PGuzzoTimes.