Deanie Bishop Parrish passed away peacefully in her home on February 24, 2022, just one day shy of her one-hundredth birthday. She met every challenge of her century-long life with spunk, determination, persistence, humor, kindness, integrity, steadfast faith, and a sparkle that lit up the room.
She was born Marie Odean Bishop on February 25, 1922, in a boxcar just off the main tracks in Defuniak Springs, Florida, to Jacob Ambus Bishop and Anna Ellen Bell. Nicknamed Odie, she was the middle child of seven: brothers H.L, Willie J, Edward James, and Walton; sisters, Ruby Lucille and Louise. In 1927, the family headed to the tiny town of Alturas in central Florida, where Odie followed her big sister to the one-room schoolhouse. Later that year, the family moved 30 miles south to the larger town of Avon Park. Odie followed her sister to school, but the teacher said she was too young. Her mom insisted the teacher test the young girl. Odie passed and began first grade a year and a half early. For the next 12 years, she never missed a day of school and graduated Valedictorian of Avon Park High School class of 1939. There may have only been 30 in her class, but she always said, “I’d still have been the Valedictorian even if there were 300!”
During the growing family’s early days in Avon Park, they lived in a wooden-floored tent about 4 miles out of town. When Odie was six, a devastating hurricane came across Lake Okeechobee. The young family took shelter in a cinder block home. The infamous Florida hurricane destroyed everything they owned except the family clock. It was found in a tree over a mile away.
While in high school, the 5 foot tall Odie played center on the basketball team until they had to travel and she had to go to work. Odie worked at the local bank as a bookkeeper and a teller, and at night, she was the cashier at the local movie theatre. When World War II started in Europe, the US designated Avon Park as home to one of the hundreds of primary schools set up across America for young men to learn to fly. Young Odean (no longer Odie) met the instructors as they cashed their checks. Convinced she was just as smart, if not smarter than the young cadets, she found an instructor and began taking lessons. The death-defying stick story of her first solo made the local paper.
Once America was thrust into WWII, Odean packed up and headed for Houston, Texas, found a job in a bank, and continued flying. After earning enough money to buy a third share in an airplane, she began flying with the Civil Air Patrol, patrolling the coast for downed aircraft and submarines. In 1943, she heard about the WASP training program, and the day she was 21, she sent in her application.
Odean took the train to Ft. Worth for a personal interview with Jacqueline Cochran, passed all the tests, including an Army physical, and was accepted into the WASP Class— 44-W-4. She paid her way to Sweetwater, Texas, and spent seven months training to fly ‘the Army Way. Following graduation, she was sent to Greenville, Ms, to fly as an engineering test pilot. After a brief check out with a twin-engine aircraft, she was assigned to transition to fly the B-26 twin-engine bomber at Tyndall AFB in Florida. After completing the training, the Army kept her at Tyndall AFB to tow targets for the B-24s who flew by with gunner trainees. While at Tyndall, Odean met the love of her life, a B-24 pilot named Bill Parrish, who had just returned after being shot down over Yugoslavia. He nicknamed her “Deanie,” a name she cherished the rest of her life.
The WASP were disbanded on December 20, 1944. Deanie and her older sister moved to Langley, Virginia, where she challenged the Air Force to hire her as the first civilian Chief Aircraft Dispatcher. They did. In June of 1946, Deanie and Bill were married. Months later, she followed him to the Panama Canal Zone. With Bill gone much of the time, she was hired as personal private secretary for the director of operations for the 6th Air Force.
Odean & Lucille, 1924
The Bishops, 1927
First Grade, center front L
High School Graduation, 1939 front center right
Baymates Ina Barkley, Jo Baker front l to r,
Dorothy Jane Baessler, Odean Bishop top
Trainee Bishop in Cockpit of PT 19
Odean taxis a B-26
Graduate wearing her Santiago Blue uniform and WASP wings
Bill Parrish (top middle r) and B-24 crew and WASP Bishop and her B-26 crew
WASP Odean, (nicknamed Deanie by Bill) Bishop and
Lt. Bill Parrish
Parrish Wedding: l to r Best Man, Lucile Bishop, Deanie Bishop Parrish, Bill Parrish, Anna Bell Bishop, Walton Bishop, Louise Bishop.
Deanie, arriving in Panama
Deanie in the Panama Canal
Deanie’s fish
Easter in Japan, 1953
Home thru Hawaii. L to r Walton Bishop, Deanie Parrish, Bill Parrish, Barby Parrish and Nancy in front.
Officer’s Wives Club, 1958
Easter in Pa. 1958
Deanie’s hand made clown skirts
1962
Bill’s retirement, 1964
Mother of the Bride
Brady, first grandson
Blessings overflowing! Bill, Brady Dale, Barby, Brook, Deanie, Nancy
Deanie, Nancy and Bill, 1991
Brady, Bobo and Brook
Suma Cum Laude graduate,
University of Houston, 1991
First air show display, 1996
San Marcos Airshow Parade, 1996
1999, Kappa Kappa Gamma’s sing “Marching Songs of the WASP”
Wings Across America’ first Interview
With make up and hair by Barby
Baylor alumni, Steve Dean, USAF combat pilot, donates door from UC-78 after having an artist paint the WASP Mascot
Putting out the flag at the Wings Across America offices, 1999
Display at Omaha WASP Convention, 1998
Checking out a Piper Cub, same type plane Deanie soloed in.
Altus AFB, OK. Tour with female pilots after Deanie’s speech
Baylor University AFROTC winning float, 1999, featuring the history of the Air Force
Deanie cutting a ribbon for L-3. Waco Chamber,
Waco Mayor and City Manager. 2007
Guest of the cadets as an Airforce Legend. Deanie with her escort and Ssgt. 2006
Air Force Academy Mascott
Veteran’s Day, 2010. Cadets from USAF ROTC
La Vega High School
In the cockpit at the airshow.
NPR Radio Interview in Baylor Studio
Last WASP Convention, 2006. Barby Williams, Deanie and Nancy Parrish, Brook and Michael Henry
Family picture in front of ‘The Spirit of Waco,’
WASP in front of the A-26
“Spirit of Waco”
Deanie, at Wings Across America’s ‘Flygirls of WWII’ Exhibit opening, Women’s Memorial, 2007
On the way to DC, American Airlines, 2010
On stage at the Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony. Lt. Col Nicole Malachowski
and WASP Deanie Parrish.
Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony: Nicole Malachowski, Sec AF Michael Donley, Tom Brokaw, John Boehner, WASP Deanie Parrish, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Mitch McConnel
First Salute
After the Ceremony: Kim and Brady Williams, Deanie and Nancy Parrish, Michael, Logan (first great grandson, age 2½ months) and Brook Henry,
Barby and Dale Williams
2011, Jonah joins the family as Deanie’s second great grandson.
2011, Gathering of Eagles, Maxwell AFB. Deanie’s escort and our host, Maj. Kristi Beckman and Jay Ashwell, artist.
Welcome to Christmas
at BoBo’s house
Baylor game, 2014
Brady, Nancy, Barby, Deanie, Brook and Logan
Meet Charley, the first great grand daughter.
Christmas, 2021
For the next 20 years, Deanie was a proud Air Force wife. She followed Bill on his Air Force assignments as they started their family. First daughter Nancy Allyson was born in Denver (Lowry AFB). Her youngest daughter, Barby Anna, was born at Tokyo General Hospital near Tachikawa AFB. Eventually, the Air Force sent the family to McGuire AFB, NJ, Maxwell AFB, Alabama, and finally to Ellington AFB, Houston, where Bill retired.
In 1975, with two daughters in college and after thousands of hours volunteering at Houston Baptist Hospital, SE, Deanie decided to do what she couldn’t do when she finished high school. Four years later, she graduated summa cum laude from the University of Houston.
Bill retired from his second career in the real estate business in 1981, and the couple moved to Waco, Texas, to be near their grandchildren. Deanie began volunteering for Historic Waco and the Waco Welcome Corps. She relished participating in the lives of her two grandchildren, and she and Bill cruised the country in their motor home, going on mission trips. In 1992, Deanie wrote “We Got the Stuff, the Right Stuff”—the only WASP Rap song for the 50th Anniversary of the Women Airforce Service Pilots. Bill passed away in 1993.
With the encouragement of her daughter, Deanie agreed to volunteer as the Assistant Director of Wings Across America, and the two began a 24-year journey of interviewing and sharing the inspirational histories of over 100 WASP. In 2003, they co-founded the National WASP WWII Museum in Sweetwater, Texas. Deanie became a great motivational speaker as she continued to share stories about the WASP and helped lobby for the Texas WASP to be inducted into the Texas Aviation Hall of Fame. In 2007, Deanie and Nancy created a traveling FlyGirls exhibit for the Women’s Memorial in DC., and Deanie began a campaign to lobby Congress to award the WASP the Congressional Gold Medal. At the official ceremony in 2010, Deanie represented all the WASP as the featured speaker at the ceremony.
Deanie Bishop Parrish was a life-long Southern Baptist and a long-time member of Columbus Avenue Baptist Church. She served as secretary of the National WASP WWII organization was inducted into the 99’s International Forest of Friendship, the WASP Congressional Gold Medal, and a second Congressional Gold Medal for her service with the CAP. With her daughter, Nancy, she was inducted into the National Women in Aviation Pioneering Hall of Fame in 2015.
For Deanie, there was never an idea that was too big. She raised the bar and challenged others to do the same. She always believed that with God, nothing was impossible. From learning to fly to writing the only WASP rap song to fighting for the Gold Medal, Deanie Bishop Parrish lived a blessed life that proved it.
