Memorial service planned for slain Anderson teacher

ANDERSON — A memorial service for Gena Parker, a third-grade teacher at Calhoun Academy of the Arts, has been planned for Monday at NewSpring Church in Anderson.

Blakely Funeral Home in Gaffney is handling funeral arrangements for Parker, 50, and her mother, Hazel Linder, 83. The two women will be buried Sunday in Frederick Memorial Gardens following a funeral service at 4 p.m. at the First Baptist Church in Gaffney.

Parker is survived by her husband, Scott Parker, who is a former football coach at T.L. Hanna High School in Anderson, and two sons, Drake and Wright, of Anderson. Her brother, Dr. B. Lee Linder and his wife, Marie, live in Gaffney.

Parker’s mother, Linder, was the wife of the late Blucher Edgar Linder Jr.

The service Monday will begin at 11 a.m.

The Rev. Perry Noble will lead the service, and Ann Self, principal of Calhoun, will deliver a eulogy.

Self said the memorial service at NewSpring, which is off S.C. 81 North in Anderson, was fitting in light of Parker’s love for her home church.

“I don’t know how long Gena and the boys attended NewSpring, but I do know that she loved it,” Self said. “She was always talking about something she had heard in the worship services. As a matter of fact, I have an e-mail in my inbox from Gena — something she’d forwarded me from a recent sermon. She was always doing things like that.”

Parker and Linder were killed Wednesday in Linder’s Gaffney home by an as-yet unidentified person whom authorities have now said they believe is responsible for at least four fatal Cherokee County shootings since June 28.