The City of Dallas is getting a new space for residents to enjoy, and it will honor one of the county’s native sons who covered the lives of people of all walks of Paulding County.
Joe Parker Memorial Park will soon be open to the public after being completed later this month and will sit within view of the historic courthouse in downtown Dallas.
City officials proclaimed Joe Parker Day is December 6 back in late 2021, and announced the naming of the new downtown park would be after the lifelong newsman who also was a 2017 Paulding Chamber of Commerce Pillar Award for his community service, was involved in the American Legion and Legion Auxiliary, the Paulding County School District, the Paulding County 4-H program, the Dallas Lions Club, the American Red Cross, the March of Dimes, the Shrine Club, the Paulding Nobility Club, the Sheriff’s Department, the American Cancer Society and Relay for Life, Boy Scouts, Ruritans – just about every organization in the county during his reporting life, Joe Parker touched it.
The estimated completion date is around April 25, and the city will have spent around $600,000 on the new park according to Public Works Director Brandon Rakestraw.
Parker, who was previously the Owner, Editor and Publisher of The Dallas New Era, was a lifelong resident of the county and served in just about every role in the county’s legal organ and in many other organizations around Paulding County.
He was inducted into the Georgia Press Hall of Fame posthumously in 2021 after he passed away in 2016 after a battle with cancer, just a year after he took over sole ownership of the Dallas New Era.
No immediate plans have been announced for a ceremony opening the park yet, but stay tuned.
See the proclamation below:
