Susan Davis Parker, 81, of Signal Mountain, Tennessee, passed away peacefully on August 12, 2026, surrounded by her family.

She was born in Annapolis, Md., to the late Edward and Gloria Davis, the eldest of six children, and graduated from Notre Dame High School in Chattanooga in 1962.

Susan earned a B.S. in biology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 1966 and began teaching science that fall. She married William "Bill" Burton Parker on Oct. 14, 1967, while he was serving as an officer in the Navy, and for the next several years she taught wherever his service and then law school took them, from tenth grade biology in Jacksonville Beach, Fl., to junior high science in Norfolk, Nashville, and Knoxville. In 1975 they settled in Chattanooga, and Susan joined The Bright School, where she taught second grade for the rest of her career.

She loved the ocean. At the beach she bobbed in the water, read in the sun, drank martinis, and tried every food on the menu. She traveled, hiked, and played tennis and pickleball, and for years she walked two or three miles four times a week. She was curious about geology and anthropology.

She was curious about people too, and especially the ones she loved. On the phone she asked about everything, and the ordinary parts of a week, the ones most people skip over, held her attention as well as the big news did. Her curiosity did not stop at the front door either. She liked to keep an eye on the neighbors, and on the deer that roamed her mountain home.

She kept a house in order, everything in its place and clean. She cooked, and she made eggs Benedict with a hollandaise no restaurant has ever matched. She played bridge with a close circle of friends, and later mahjong, the group rotating houses and everyone arriving with snacks and drinks. She was warm company and she played to win.

Her strength was easy to miss because she was so easy to be around. She had firm ideas and a firm will, and she disliked conflict enough that she would often defer rather than press a point. The people close to her learned to tell the difference between Susan agreeing and Susan deciding a thing wasn't worth the argument.

"One day at a time" was her answer to most hard things, and the people close to her heard it often, and welcomed advice followed by those who heard it.

Above all she loved her daughter. She never stopped offering Katherine guidance, encouragement, and a mother's lifelong concern. If love could be measured in worry, Katherine need never doubt how deeply she was loved.

Susan was preceded in death by her husband of 57 years, Bill Parker, who died on July 10, 2025.
She is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Katherine Parker Siskind and Brian Siskind; her siblings, Martha Carty, Michael Davis, Karen and Nick Decosimo, Matthew and Julie Davis, and Lisa and Scott Brown; and many nieces, nephews, extended family, former students, colleagues, and friends.

A Mass celebrating Susan's life will be held at St. Augustine Catholic Church on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026, at 11 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
Arrangements are by Heritage Funeral Home, East Brainerd Chapel.