Obituaries

He attended St. Bernard College in Cullman, Ala., graduated from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and received his law degree from Loyola University Law School in New Orleans in 1971. He served in the Navy.

He was a longtime resident of Bogalusa. The Louisiana Supreme Court appointed him an interim city court judge in 1996.

Survivors include his wife, Mary Bush Paduda of Bogalusa; two children, Marcie Braswell of Birmingham and Michael J. Paduda III of Jackson, Miss.; three sisters, Mary Paduda of Upper Marlboro; Margaret Bates of Charlotte Hall and Patricia Farmer of Laurel; and a grandson.

Melvin ParkerPharmacist

Melvin Parker, 81, a pharmacist who co-owned Val-Park Drugs in Northeast Washington through 1967, died of complications of dementia Sept. 21 at Anne Arundel Medical Center. He lived in Annapolis.

Mr. Parker was a native Baltimorean who enlisted in the Amy Air Forces during World War II. He became a pilot, one of the 992 men who graduated from pilot training at the Tuskegee Institute. He was a member of the famous 99th Fighter Squadron, but the war ended before he was sent overseas.

After the war, he returned to the Washington area and enrolled in school while working at the State Department. He graduated from Howard University's pharmacy school and with a classmate opened one of the first black-owned pharmacies in Washington. Mr. Parker sold his share in 1967 and moved to Annapolis, where he practiced pharmacy at several stores for 20 more years.

He was the Peninsula Athletic League's basketball chairman and coach and coached Amateur Athletic Union boys' basketball. He was also president of the Maryland state AAU for 10 years.

His first wife, Thelma Louise Parker, died in 1967. A son from that marriage, Melvin S. Parker, died in 2004.

Survivors include his wife, Nancy R. Patteson Parker of Annapolis; a son from his second marriage, Rick Parker of Washington; and a granddaughter.