Martha Anne Ferriss Parker dead at 86
Posted on: April 08,2013
Martha Ann Ferriss (center) with Boo Ferriss and their mother, Lellie Meadow Ferriss, before Game Three of the 1946 World Series at Fenway Park.
Shaw native Martha Anne Ferriss Parker, a champion tennis player and the younger sister of Mississippi baseball legend Boo Ferriss, has died at the age of 86.
Martha Anne Ferriss Parker is survived by her husband, long-time college football coach and NFL scout Henry Lee Parker, who once coached at Mississippi State. They had retired in Florence, Ala.
Martha Anne Ferriss Parker was a state high school tennis champion at Shaw High and won numerous other Mississippi titles in singles, doubles and mixed doubles. She teamed with Mississippi Sports Hall of Famers Lester Sack and Slew Hester to win several mixed doubles titles.
She was inducted into the Knoxville, Tenn., Sports Hall of Fame in 1993 and into the Tennessee Tennis Hall of Fame in 2005.
Said Boo Ferriss, “Martha Anne was just an outstanding athlete. If they would have had college sports for women when she came along, she would have been an All-American in tennis, basketball, softball or anything else she wanted to play.”
Services are tentatively set for Friday in Florence, Ala.
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