Mary Eugenia (Lee) Parke (1875 - 1957)

Born 5 Feb 1875 in Manassas, Virginia

Ancestors

Wife of Philip Brotherson Parke — married 17 Aug 1898 in Washington, D.C.

Descendants

Died 9 Dec 1957 at age 82 in New Brighton, Pennsylvania

Problems/Questions Profile manager: William Parke [send private message]

Biography

Mary Eugenia Lee, known as Mana, was born in Manassas, Virginia, the ninth of ten children of George Washington Lee and Elizabeth Tillinghast Alexander, both from prominent Virginia families. George and Elizabeth owned and maintained a working farm in Manassas, later taken over by their daughter Maude Lee Marsteller.

Mana kept family records in the bible given to her by her husband, Philip Parke, with the inscription, "To my Dear Wife Mana Lee Parke on her 55th birthday, Feb 5, 1930 from Daddy Phil.

Being in the Lee family, Mana was given the solid oak single pedestal table from the McLean house in Appomattox, an identical copy or the original of the table where Robert Edward Lee signed the surrender that ended the War between the States. The table came through Mana's Aunt Maria Mason, who was the wife of Philip De Catesby Jones and the daughter of Dr. John Mason and Virginia Hooe McLean Mason. Virginia's 2nd husband was Wilmer McLean, owner of the home where the surrender occurred. Mana gave the table to her son, Lee Wood Parke, who kept it in his home at 4905 Edgemoor Lane, Bethesda, from 1942 to 1963, when he gave the table to the Smithsonian. What is claimed to be the original surrender table, bought by Gen. Ord in 1865 from Wilmer McLean, is held by the Chicago museum,

Sources

• Mana was my grandmother. Information comes from our family records.