Cpl. Tommy L. Parker, Jr. was born in Stuttgart and graduated from Triple "S" Christian School in Rose Bud. His friends and family remember him as a deeply religious man who was devoted to his family and his country. He was so eager to enlist in the Marines that he needed a waiver signed by his parents because he was only 17.

Upon graduation, he married his high school sweetheart and shortly thereafter was assigned to Camp Pendleton in California. Cpl. Parker would serve with a sniper platoon which seemed a natural fit for a young man with a love of hunting who had accompanied his father on deer and rabbit hunting trips since he was three. He service in the Marine Corps took him to Japan and Indonesia before being deployed to Iraq in February.
 
Upon his death, a makeshift memorial was created outside the Cleburne County Courthouse. At his memorial service, mourners filled the First United Methodist Church of Heber Springs beyond capacity before his burial with full military honors at the Cleburne County Memorial Gardens. "Out of all the wonderful virtues he portrayed, the greatest of them was love," said John Taylor, his father in-law, "He truly loved God, family and his country." My thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Carla; his two-year old daughter, Laura; his parents, Renatta and Tommy; and all those who knew and loved him.