Linda Jo Watkins Parker

January 5, 1943 - November 20, 2018

Funeral services for Linda Watkins Parker, 75, of The Villages, Florida will be conducted on Saturday, November 24, 2018 at 2 pm at the Thompson Funeral Home in Piedmont, Alabama. The Reverends Larry McGathy and Garry Brown will lead the services. Burial will follow at the Nances Creek Cemetery in Jacksonville, Alabama. The family will receive friends Saturday from noon until 2 pm. Linda passed away Tuesday, November 20, 2018 in The Villages, Florida. Survivors include: her husband, Richard Parker of The Villages; her sister Deborah Smith of The Villages; her brother Arthur Edwin Smith of Theodore, Alabama; three stepchildren: Kevin Parker, Timothy Parker, and Tony Parker; five grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. Pallbearers will be Jerry Jockisch, Charles Jockisch, Freeman Jockisch Jr., Kevin Parker, Timothy Parker, and Tony Parker. Linda enjoyed motorcycle trips and spending summers in the mountains of western North Carolina with her husband Richard; spending time with her children, family, and friends; and shopping with her sister Deborah. Linda was born in Mobile, Alabama and spent most of her life in Alabama. She attended Barton Academy, Azalea Road Middle School, and Murphy High School in Alabama. Linda worked in the late 1970s and 1980s at Federal Mogul Corporation, and in the 1990s at Bostrom Seating, manufacturers who were both located in Jacksonville, Alabama. She was responsible for exporting products to foreign countries. In the late 1990s, she worked at Mead Coated Board in Phenix City, Alabama. Linda was preceded in death by her parents Nathala Dyess Smith and Ulys Smith, her son Richard (Ricky) Watkins, her daughter Lisanne Watkins McKinney, and her son in law Doug McKinney. Flowers may be sent to Thompson Funeral Home, 6340 Old Piedmont-Gadsden Hwy, Piedmont, Alabama 36272 (Telephone: (256) 447-7113).