Baseball Legend, Wife Were Living 'Best Life' Before His Death at 74
Seven years after he started experiencing symptoms from Parkinson's disease, Pittsburgh Pirates' legend Dave Parker and his wife Kellye focused on the positives.
They opened up about the diagnosis in 2019 to UC Health.
“We’re just living our best life,” his wife Kellye told UC Health then.
Parker, 74, who also played for the Cincinnati Reds, died on June 28.
According to the New York Times, Parker was survived by his wife, Kellye Crockett Parker and six kids.
“They give you hope,” Kellye Parker said in the UC Health interview of other people with health issues. “Parkinson’s is not easy either, but you go, ‘Wow, look at them.’ How can you give up? Their hope and our hope, it just keeps going.”
The official cause of death was not given, but the team announced his death at a game and in a statement that paid tribute to the powerful baseball player known as the "Cobra" during his prime.
The Hall of Famer (he was elected before his death but scheduled to be inducted next month), retired from Major League Baseball in 1991, according to UC Health.
"Since then, he’s been enjoying life in retirement with Kellye, his wife of 35 years. He also continues to mentor young players who hope to achieve the same success as he did," UC Health wrote.
"He had a big personality, and his passing has left an even bigger void with all who knew him. Our hearts go out to his wife, Kellye, and his family," the Pittsburgh Pirates wrote in a tribute to Parker.
"He was an All-Star, a Gold Glover, a batting champion, a National League MVP and a critical part of the 1979 Pirates World Series Championship team."
According to the Society for American Baseball Research, Parker and his wife, Kellye, "bought a Popeye’s fried-chicken franchise in Cincinnati," and, after he retired, Parker helped her run it. They later started a foundation devoted to finding a cure for Parkinson's Disease, the Society wrote.
According to the Society, a woman named Stella Miller Parker accused Parker of being in a common law marriage with her in the 1980s.
Related: MLB Hall of Famer's Cause of Death Unclear, But He Shared a Major Health Issue