World War II Veteran. John Donavan Parks was born on February 23, 1922 in Wichita, Kansas at 1157 N. Minneapolis. The family moved to 121 S. Dodge in the next few weeks. John was the fourth child of Alfred N. Parks Sr. and Mary Elizabeth Kaufman. He was a happy child and early on developed an artistic talent with little cartoon sketches of his family and surroundings. He attended Frankiln Elementary School, three blocks from home, Allison Intermediate School, one block from home, and North High School, four miles north of home, on bicycle. While attending North High School he also enrolled at Wichita Art Association night school, which he attended for three years studying portrait and life drawing. His brother Alfred Parks Jr. remembers that when John was ten or eleven years old, he put out a 'weekly paper' of comic strips and little notices. He created the comics by making razor cuts on blotter paper that he could ink and print by pressing the blotter to paper. After graduating from high school he worked for Sears Roebuck in the display department as a window trimmer. The store was downtown and had 4 large show windows which he was in charge of setting up displays and signing out. Pearl Harbor occurred on December 7, 1941 and John enlisted in the Marines on January 23, 1942.He was sent to the west coast to Camp Pendleton, California for training and served in many of the engagements involving the hardest fighting in the Pacific. His first action was at Gaudalcanal, where he was injuried while moving ammunition ashore during the height of the fighting. Hospitalized on Samoa Island, he was reassigned to training on the 'Canal' for the Bougainville assault where he landed with the first wave as a machine gunner of a scout company.He was struck by shrapnel from morter fire in his right leg on the 20th day of fighting near the Torakina River. His most frightening moment occurred while with a group of wounded awaiting evacuation on the beach, enemy planes strafed and bombed them. A shell wounded him and killed one man, and wounded two others. After hospitalization and recovery, he was given leave to visit home in September, 1944. During this first tour he served on Gaudalcanal, Bougainville, Samoa, New Zealand, New Caledonia, New Hebrides and Tonga Tabu. Returning to duty in October, 1944, he served as an instructor with the rank of corporal in the forming of the new 5th Division of the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton, California. During all of this time he produced endless sketches and watercolors of his buddies and surroundings. His letters always included some illustrations. The 5th Marine Division when fully complemented and trained, shipped out by way of Hawaii to attack Iwo Jima where the fiercest fighting took place in the whole war.John was a corporal in the 5th Supply Battalion, surviving to go on to mainland Japan as the first occupation troops at wars end. He earned the Pacific-Asiatic service ribbon with three stars, the Purple Heart, the Presidential Unit Citation, and the Good Conduct Medal. Some of his art works were published in the second edition of a book titled "Marine Wat Art". After returning home he enrolled in the Chicago Art Institute where he earned a degree in Art, graduating in 1950. He returned to Kansas, accepting a post as an art instructor at the University of Kansas, teaching art and copper etching for three years. He left K.U. in the fall of 1953 and moved to Kansas City to "free lance" as an artist. He was getting a good start, doing some murals and selling works on paper when he contracted melanoma cancer and entered St. Mary's Hospital at Kansas City in early February, 1954. He died there on April 4, 1954. His funeral was held in Wichita, Kansas and he was buried there at White Chapel Cemetery.