5/8/1951 – 1/5/2025
Lawrence
Visitation with military honors for Parker Groves will be held from 1 to 3 pm Sunday, January 12, 2025 at Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home. Private burial will take place at Memorial Park Cemetery, Lawrence.
Parker Ross Groves was born in Wichita, Kansas on May 8, 1951. He graduated from North Kansas City High School in 1969. Kathy Jansen, daughter of Myrt and Henry Jansen, was married to Parker in Kansas City, KS on June 21, 1975. Parker worked as a Public Service Officer in Riverside, Missouri, until he was invited by his father, Carol Groves, to join a new business which Carol created, Laser Graphics, in Lawrence Kansas. The business utilized the new technology of laser scanning in the printing industry.
Parker later worked as a Purchasing Agent at Forbes Field in Topeka, Kansas. This led him to an opportunity to fulfil his lifelong dream of flying in the military as a Boom Operator in the Air National Guard. When Operation Desert Storm was implemented, Parker was called to serve in Saudi Arabia to refuel in air many types of combat aircraft.
In retirement, Parker enjoyed many hobbies, including sailing, ham radio, HO gauge model trains, 3D printers, and train travel. At the time of his death, Parker was restoring a vintage 1979 Triumph Spitfire.
The family suggest donations to the American Cancer Society. To leave a message for Parker’s family, please visit www.Rumsey-Yost.com.
Note: The Lawrence Times is offering Lawrence and Douglas County community members space to publish remembrances of loved ones who lived in this community, free of charge. These pieces are submitted by family and friends of the deceased and not written by our staff. Photos are also provided to the publication, and some may have been altered prior to submission. Read more obituaries here.
We are honored to be able to offer this service free to community members in mourning. We believe the last thing our neighbors need in those difficult moments is another financial matter to worry about. Please support the Times to help us continue providing this service — and news access — for all.
To submit an obituary to The Lawrence Times, please fill out the form at this link. We’re sorry, but we cannot accept obituary submissions via email or other means.
Receive obituaries via email
As of May 2026, we are launching a newsletter that will include obituaries only. Obituaries will no longer appear in our daily emails. You can sign up below to receive any and all of our emails. If you already receive our daily, weekly and/or occasional emails and you want to keep receiving them, please check those boxes as well.
Please make sure you click on the button that says “Yes, subscribe me to this list” in the email you receive or you will not receive future emails. That extra step is to protect you and make sure you’re not getting emails you don’t want.
