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Mourners Hail Strawberry King

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By DAVE NICHOLSON The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 10, 2008

PLANT CITY - Longtime friend Joe Newsome was sure of one thing Monday as he looked from the pulpit at Evangelical Presbyterian Church at those who filled the pews at Roy Parke's memorial service:

"He would love seeing all this red," Newsome said of the grower who was known as the Strawberry King.

Parke, who died Thursday at 87, requested that mourners wear red to his memorial service. It was a fitting tribute to a man who did so much to promote the strawberry industry.

Newsome, a retired school board member who served with Parke on the Florida Strawberry Festival board, was among those who shared their memories of a man known for his love of family, God and farming.

His pastor, the Rev. Don Mason, said Parke had humility in spiritual matters.

He also loved the limelight and did all he could to promote the berry business. Fox 13 News anchor Kelly Ring said Parke was a gifted communicator who could relate as well to a television reporter as he could to a customer who wandered into his field to buy a flat of berries.

Fellow grower Carl Grooms recalled how Parke was among the first to try new techniques for growing berries. He drew chuckles when he said Parke wasn't beyond exaggerating to reporters or others about the size of his berries or his farm.

But he said Parke earned his nickname as the Strawberry King.

"The Plant City area and the berry industry is a lot better off today because Roy Parke walked his way through here," Grooms said.

Reporter Dave Nicholson can be reached at (813) 865-4432 or dnicholson@tampatrib.com.

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