Oran Oliver Parrish's Obituary
Oran Oliver Parrish, aged 101 years, passed from this life Sunday, February 15, 2026, at Circle of Life Hospice House in Bentonville, Arkansas, resting comfortably and at Peace.
Dad was born September 9, 1924, and was raised on the family farm in the Sunset area East of Winslow, Arkansas, the youngest of eight children of Daniel C and Mary L. (Reed) Parrish. He attended school at Black Oak school through the 8th grade, leaving school to help work on the farm.
He entered the US NAVY in October 1943, and spent 2 years in the Pacific as a Quartermaster on Landing Craft Transport ships, ferrying supplies and personnel among the Islands held and protected by the US Navy until the end of WWII. In January 1946 he returned to the family farm after separation from the service.
In January of 1948 Dad married Mary Imogene Caudle and started a life together in Fayetteville. In March of 1953 the family, now including three children, moved to California and settled in a small town on the Monterey Bay, with Dad starting work for Kaiser Aluminum Company Brick and Refractory plant nearby and Mother working in various grocery stores.
Over the next decade, three more children joined the group, and Life carried on as everyone grew and developed, until July 1969 when an automobile accident took Mother from the Family. Dad married Anne Laura Glidewell in 1970.
Dad and Anne moved back to Northwest Arkansas in 2004 and settled in Greenland until her passing in 2010. A year or so later he moved into an Assisted Living community, and has lived among a group of kind friends these last several years.
Dad was a member of the Center Street church of Christ in Fayetteville, and enjoyed the companionship and the fellowship of such a wonderful family of like-minded Christian people. He was a Christian man who did his best in life to to give, and to show, and to teach Love and Service to his children as they grew up and went on to make their own lives.
He was preceded in death by first wife Imogene Caudle Parrish, and second wife Anne Glidewell Parrish; by his parents, Daniel C and Mary Reed Parrish; by four brothers – Clyde, George, Perry, and Phillip; by three sisters – Annie Henson, Blanche Allen, and Ilora Allen; and by Son-in-Law Mike Fincher.
He is survived by: his sons Gordon (Cheryl) of Greenland, Wade (Carol) of Greenland, and Wilson (Kristen) of Sherwood, OR; his daughters Barbara Fincher of Fayetteville, Danice (Gary) Wood of Ione, CA. and Darla (Chris) Wincentsen of Modesto, CA; 15 Grandchildren, 24 great-grandchildren, and 1 great-great-grandchild.
A Celebration of Life will be held Sunday Afternoon, March 1, at the Greenland church of Christ from 2:30PM to 5:30PM
A Private Veterans Honors Ceremony will be held at a later date.
Memorials may be made to Gospel Tracts International and to Circle of Life Hospice, Bentonville.
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