Helen Parke celebrated her 97th birthday on Tuesday, surrounded by friends and family at Grace Manor in Plant City.
The celebration was organized by Parke’s daughter, Sandee Sytsma, along with other family and friends, featuring food and drinks and desserts, headlined by a live musical performance from entertainer Dennis Lee and his accompanying musicians, including the accomplished fiddle player Stephanie Ann.
Celebrating his 40th year at the Florida Strawberry Festival in 2022, performing there each year since 1982, Lee is a long-time friend of the Parke family and certainly no stranger to their impact on Plant City.
“This right here is as important as if I was performing in front of 10,000 people on the main stage at the Florida Strawberry Festival,” Lee said. “These people have made a special imprint on so many lives and this is one of the top honors that I can experience. To be in the presence of so many wonderful people who have had such wonderful lives, and they still do, but some may not be able to come to my shows anymore so I bring the show to them. Especially Mrs. Parke, she and her husband used to come to my shows all the time. Talk about being nervous, I think I’m as nervous today as I am performing in front of a bunch of people at the festival.”
Through strawberry-themed decor, the facility partied for two hours to honor another year for one of Plant City’s most historically impactful citizens.
Parke and her late husband Roy met in 1943, living in Pennsylvania before relocating to Florida in 1956 and ultimately building Parkesdale Farms before shaping generations of fellow Plant City residents. While Roy took on a moniker of the “Strawberry King,” Helen was a fitting queen.
What began as 10 acres of strawberry crops has grown into over 800 acres of strawberries, citrus, plants, seasonings and produce. In 1969, Roy and Helen’s daughter Cheryl opened their legendary Parkesdale Farm Market, where it still sits on West Baker Street today, garnering lines of visitors that come from all over to taste their world-famous strawberry shortcake. From May through October, the Market opens its doors from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., from Wednesday to Sunday. But during their peak season from November through April, they’re open all seven days of the week.
Away from the farm, Helen was more than just a mother to her and Roy’s five children, but to everyone in the neighborhood who wanted a seat at the table. When their children were at Plant City High School, the couple served as co-presidents of the Band Parents and Roy was the Booster Club president. Helen hosted many Florida Strawberry Festival meetings in the family’s living room, along with weekly family dinners – often coming with dozens in attendance – for years. Even into her 90’s, she could be found helping out at the Parkesdale Farms plant nursery and can still be found each spring at the Parkesdale Farms booth at the Festival – where Sytsma served for years as an associate director, a director and on a number of committees before being elected the first female chair in festival history in 2017.
“She really is an icon,” Sytsma said. “And I know that sounds like I’m bragging, but I’m not. That’s just her. She’s a role model and I hear it all the time, people want to grow up to be Helen Parke and I get that, they just love mom.”