Raymond Parks: A Life At Speed


Today

Bill France, Raymond Parks and Raymond’s wife Violet several years ago before France became ill. The two men remained close friends for over 50 years.

Since then, Raymond has kept a low profile.  Business as usual.  He arrives at his northside Atlanta offices every morning wearing his trademark suit, tie and dress hat.  His brothers Virgil and Frank help run the businesses, same as they have since the forties.  His Hemphill complex gave way to the campus of Georgia Tech in the seventies, and until he sold out last year, his brother John had run the Peachtree Street store.

Raymond’s only child, Ray, who was a noted horticulturist in the Atlanta area, passed away at the age of 64 in 1997.  Raymond’s oldest sister Ruby died in 1980 and brother Pete was killed in a car crash in 1941.  The rest of the siblings live in Georgia and California.

His old friend Bill France, Sr. would sometimes call Raymond daily, even with his failing memory.

“Bill suffered from Alzheimers when he died in 1992,” Violet Parks, Raymond’s wife, noted.  “Even in the latter stages when he still had access to a phone, he would call and talk to Raymond about building a track in Kansas City (years before NASCAR even chose it as a track site in the Midwest).  Bill France had been a great visionary since he was a kid, and remained so until the end.”

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