Parker, Edith H.

Edith H. Parker (1905-1985) was a journalist, political aide to Senator Tom Connally, and professor. She attended Federicksburg, Virginia State Normal School and earned her teaching certificate in 1923. After teaching elementary school, she worked for the Washington Herald as a reporter, librarian, and assistant editor, 1931-1934. Parker then worked as an aide to Tom Connally, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Though Connally was supposed to write the declaration of war against Japan after the bombing, he could not be found, so Parker penned the document, basing it on the U.S. declaration of war document against Germany in World War I. Parker later taught English and history at Northwestern State College in Alva, Oklahoma, 1953-1954; East Texas State College, 1954-1958; and Del Mar College, 1958-1968. She remained active in Democratic Party politics, maintaining close ties with Lyndon B. Johnson and serving on an advisory committee of a special Senate committee chaired by John F. Kennedy, 1957. Parker retired from teaching in 1970 and died in 1985.

Sources:

Edith H. Parker Papers, 1922-1984, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.

Los Angeles Times obituary, Edith Parker, 79; Senate Aide Penned the Declaration of War Against Japan, March 28, 1985.