Irene Louise Scott

Irene Louise Scott (Parks)  (Rena Lou)
b. 3 Feb 1911, Friday, at Stith Valley in Meade County Ky at 5:30 A.M.
m. July 1934 Russel Parks (divorced 1962)
d. 26 Feb 1984
 
At 6 years old in 1917.  Story retold by Alice Scott in 1998:
    Rena Lou's grandfather C. B. Fontaine was visiting the Scott home (Jesse Stith Farm) with Lenora.  Rena Lou's mother, Ruth (Ma), had borrowed a carpet from her mother-in-law Granny Scott (Adelissa Louisa Hardaway Scott) who lived on the neighboring farm.  When the grandfather noticed the carpet, Rena Lou boldly announced that it was a "borrowed carpet".

Rena Lou taught at Hall School for one year ...  1929? (Located between Big Spring and Hog Wallow Kentucky)
  ref: Jack Scott 1998

Irvington Elementary School, second grade about 1950.

Poem by  Fontaine Roberson

    Fontaine was a senior in high school  when Rena Lou (her grandmother) died in 1984.  Fontaine wrote the
poem to her grandmother the following year at the University of Kentucky.

Obituary
 
 
 

Reunion

When I see you again
in Sunday-go-to-meetin' clothes
with not-too-high heels
holding thin ankles,
pushing you an inch above me,
I'll hug your boney shoulders
breathing moth balls and Chanel no. 5,
and we'll talk of things I never said.

When I see you again
will you tell me tales of the Azores,
show me pictures from England?
I want to know about the Huguenots;
let me see on your wall map
where all the people with my name
started from.

Let me drink milk out of teacups from Paris
while we play Canasta
on a garage-sale card table.
Later I'll play "Greensleeves" on my flute
and make homemade fudge
you'll say is the best you ever had
while you eat it with a spoon.

Let me find countless treasures
in your old drawers,
but don't leave me alone
as I brush the hair
of your childhood doll.

The first rich smell
of your apple cake
is calling me softly down.
I want you to take me inside
your supple arms
and sing to me
an Irish lullaby.
         Fontaine Roberson

sisters1.jpg (95514 bytes)
Mary, Jessie, Rena Lou
photo from Fontaine Roberson

 

Tri-City Times, Hardinsburg, Ky. February 29, 1984
Parks
   Rena Lou Parks, age 73, of Elizabethtown and formerly of Irvington died Sunday, February 26, 1984 at Hardin Memorial Hospital in Elizabethtown.  She was born February 3, 1911 in Stith Valley in neighboring Meade County,  the daughter of the late Walter and Ruth Fontaine Scott.  She was an elementary teacher for many years, a member of the Christ Episcopal Church of Elizabethtown, a member of the Business and Professional Women's Club, a member of the Hardin County Historical Society , a member of the Retired Teachers' Association and a member of the Huguenot Society.
  Survivors include one daughter, Mrs. Ruth Roberson of Elizabethtown; one son, Scott Parks of Hardinsburg; five grandchildren, Fontaine and Judd Roberson and Barry, Dawn and Leyla Parks;  two sisters, Jessie Williams of Elizabethtown and Mary Foote of Irvington;  and four brothers, Walter Scott of Stith Valley, Ky., Bill Scott of McLean Virginia, Jim Scott of Madison, Indiana, and Jack Scott of Meade County.
  Memorial services were held Tuesday, February 28, 1984 at 11:00 am. EST at Christ Episcopal Church with burial in the Cap Anderson cemetery in Brandenburg.