Parker S. Dailey

On June 16, 2025, at the age of 96, the Rev. Parker Stokes Dailey went home to be with his Savior. He was the husband of Thelma Jean (Brown) Dailey for almost 74 years, until she preceded him in death on July 9, 2024. He was the father of three and grandfather of five, all of whom loved and admired him and will miss him dearly until we are reunited in Heaven.

He was a spiritual father to thousands, having founded Blue Ridge Baptist Temple in November 1954 and served as its pastor until his retirement in 1996.

Parker was born on May 13, 1929, in Chicago, Illinois, to James Dailey and Fay Stokes Dailey. From infancy onward, he spent his childhood, along with older brother Jim, on the farm of his maternal grandparents in Henrietta, Mo. The boys were great friends and rivals throughout their lives, competing at anything and everything — from learning vocabulary words to playing on the six-man Henrietta public school football team, from reading books to spitting watermelon seeds.

At the age of 16, Parker joined his mother Fay in Kansas City, Mo., eager to play sports in a big city. He attended Westport High School, excelling as both scholar and athlete. More significantly, at his mom’s insistence, he started attending Kansas City Baptist Temple, where he soon committed his life to Jesus Christ.

Parker went on to Kansas City Junior College, but after his first year he felt God’s call to the pastorate; so in January 1949 he enrolled at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Tx., headquarters of the Baptist Bible Fellowship International, the denomination of his home church in K.C. There he met fellow student Thelma Jean Brown and fell in love. After he’d completed only one semester of Bible college, however, denominational leaders sent him to Columbia, Tenn., to fill the pulpit at a tiny church that was meeting in a tent. The members soon asked him (age 20) to be their pastor, and he accepted. He also built their cement-block church, with the coaching of an 80-year-old neighbor.

Through these months Parker and Jean continued their courtship via the U.S. Postal Service. They married on November 30, 1950, in Springfield, Mo., where she had been working for the publisher of the “Baptist Bible Tribune.” After a few years in Tennessee, Parker and Jean moved back to Kansas City in mid-1953. He returned to college, majoring in Latin at the University of Missouri and graduating in 1956. He also returned to Kansas City Baptist Temple and was soon recruited to start a new church in the booming southeast suburbs.

Blue Ridge Baptist Temple began in a rented feed store in November 1953 and incorporated in March 1954. Although Parker took on other significant roles — as president of the denomination and of its Bible College in Springfield, and as a speaker in pulpits around the world — it was shepherding the Blue Ridge congregation that was his life’s work. From that first Sunday with just 12 people, the church grew to an average Sunday morning attendance of 800 by 1968. In the 1970s attendance regularly topped 1,200 people, with over 2,000 for big days like “Anniversary Sunday” and “Friend Day.”

Parker was a tireless pastor — preaching and teaching in four services each week, making hospital visits, spending evenings on house calls. Until extreme old age took his memory, he could tell you the date that almost any church member first visited the church, where they lived, the date they made a decision for Christ, the date they were baptized — even which pew they preferred in the sanctuary. Winning converts and building the church consumed him.

But Parker had hobbies too. Throughout these years he remained a remarkable athlete, excelling at basketball, golf and fast-pitch softball. For years he maintained a good-natured rivalry with his brother Jim, who played for the Kansas City Baptist team. Both brothers pitched very well — well into their 50s. It was also Jim who had introduced him to golf in young adulthood (at the Swope Park course), and Parker was still golfing at age 89.

Church-league basketball continued through the mid-1970s but then shifted to pick-up games with church teens, including many late Sunday nights at the parsonage. “Pastor Dailey” could hold his own with his son Brian’s friends, while Thelma Jean fed the crew. Many of those teenage boys grew up to be ministers too.

When Parker was a young teen, he was fascinated by the pilots training at nearby Wentworth Military Academy, soaring above his grandparents’ farm. World War II ended before he could join the Air Force, but in the late 1960s, a Blue Ridge member offered him free flying lessons. He earned his license, but the discovery of diabetes when he was 40 years old put an end to all that. The doctors told him he would likely not live past the age of 60. God had other plans.

This driven, multifaceted man loved the Lord above all else and longed to persuade others to follow Jesus. He fought the good fight, he ran the race, he kept the faith.

Rev. Dailey was preceded in death by his wife Thelma Jean, his father James, mother Fay, brother Jim, daughter Brenda Kay and nephew Daniel. He is survived by his children Ruth Ann (husband Andrew Reamer) and Brian (wife Anne Spalding); his grandchildren Alex, Aaron, and Emma Baker, and Shannon and Rylan Dailey; his sister-in-law Johnnie Mae Dailey; and his nephew Timothy and nieces Vicki and Teresa.

A funeral service will be held Saturday, July 12, at Manna Fellowship Church, 17617 S Rte 291, Pleasant Hill, MO, 64080. Visitation will be at 10 a.m. with the service at 11 a.m.