6/18/25 – Memorializing the life of Loretta Parker-Brown
In Loving Memory of Loretta Parker-Brown
A Life of Purpose and Passion
Loretta Parker-Brown dedicated her life to activism, writing, and nurturing her family and community. As a writer, mother, sister, aunt, and friend, she inspired those around her to strive for justice, compassion, and creativity.
Memorial Service Information – A celebration of life event.
Date: 7/1/2025
Time:
Visit Family and Friends – 10 am
Service – 11 am
Location: Marshall-March Funeral Home (link)
4217 9th St NW, Washington, DC 20011
Live streaming on July 1, 2025, 11 am – The recording will remain live until Oct 1 2025
https://webcast.funeralvue.com/events/viewer/113785
Tribute Video
Obituary by Loretta Parker-Brown and Kyle M. Brown
Loretta Parker-Brown entered eternal peace at 11:00 am on June 10, 2025, at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, DC.
Loretta was born in Tarboro, N.C. She was the eldest of four children of the late Willie and Mildred Parker. She grew up in the LeDroit Park section of Washington, DC, and attended Lucretia Mott Elementary School, Garnet-Patterson Junior High, and Dunbar High.
During her early teen years, she volunteered as a Candy Stripper at Freedman’s Hospital, which was replaced by Howard University Hospital in 1975.
In 1965, her parents moved the family from LeDroit Park uptown to the Petworth Section of Ward 4. She continued to attend Dunbar High School and graduated in June 1966. During her senior year at Dunbar, she participated in a job fair for the city’s high school students. That venture got her an interview with C&P Telephone Company – now Verizon – and upon graduation, she began working for the phone company two weeks after graduating. She remained with the company until early June, when she resigned before getting married.
On June 8, 1968, she married Randy W. Brown. Immediately after marrying, they moved to New York. After staying about six months with her Aunt Sarah, due to a problem with the room they had rented, they got their first apartment on Van Buren Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn.
In 1969, Randy got a job as a DC Police Officer, so Loretta and Randy moved from NY to DC, where they stayed with Loretta’s parents for about six months until they were able to get an apartment on W Street, SE on a hill up the street from the home of Frederick Douglas.
On February 12, she gave birth to her son, Kyle, and on July 26, 1971, she gave birth to her daughter, Nikki.
After her marriage dissolved in early 1972, Loretta moved to her parents’ home, where they lived until she got a job as a telephone operator for the Department of the Army at the Pentagon.
In 1976, Loretta moved to the Florian Garden Apartments in Brightwood. She continued to work in the public sector for the next two years. In 1978, she began working in the private sector with Political Lobbyist firms.
Florian Gardens is where she began working as an activist. She served on the Board of Directors at Florian Gardens since 1986, when the FG tenants association formed. When the property was put up for sale in 1988, Loretta was instrumental in getting the ball rolling on the purchasing process. She contacted a neighbor, Hazel Williams, and asked if she would be willing to assist. She agreed.
Loretta contacted the organization Project WISH, which would eventually help the tenants to purchase the property. The tenants became owners of the Florian Gardens Coop in May 1989. She was elected to the co-op board in 1989 and served as secretary of that board until her passing.
Additionally, she volunteered to help serve Thanksgiving meals at the Community for Creative Nonviolence (Mitch Snyder’s group), participated in numerous walk-a-thons for various causes such as Breast Cancer, Arthritis, the Million Man March, and the Women’s March on Washington.
Ever since she was a small child, reading books and writing have always been her passions. Loretta has had numerous items, including articles and Letters to the Editor, published in local newspapers, including The Washington Post. She also wrote for about three years for the Metro Chronicle (a now-defunct local pub).
After retiring in 2009, Loretta began blogging and has been a blogger until her passing. In May 2015, she published her first book titled “Legacy.” At the time of her passing, she was working on a second book about her experience at Florian Gardens.
Loretta is survived by her brothers Carlton Parker and Harold Parker, her sister Gloria Moore, her son Kyle M. Brown, her daughter Nikki Royal-Brown, her companion of 24 years, Charles Howard, and her six grandchildren: Kendall, Dante, Khalil, Kalan (twins), Darrian, Marquis, and a host of other family and friends.
Share Your Memories
We invite you to share your stories and tributes below. Your words will help us honor her legacy and keep her memory alive.