J. Parkinson, Baldwin nabe's "Mama," dies

To many children in her Baldwin neighborhood, Judith Parkinson was simply known as "Mama."

In her 97 years, Judith Parkinson baby-sat countless children for relatives, friends and neighbors, both in Baldwin and her native Jamaica.

"You could recognize that matriarch quality about her with one look," said her grandson, Andrew Brown, 37, of Baldwin, with whom Parkinson lived. "If you came around the house more than one time, she adopted you as family."

Parkinson died last Tuesday at Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Centre of natural causes, her family said.

Born in Jamaica in 1914, Judith Minto, an only child, grew up on a farm in the northwest of the country and married Dudley Parkinson in 1932. The couple had two children, Pearl and Myrna, and Judith helped raise countless other children on their farm about 15 minutes outside of Montego Bay.

While Dudley worked for the government, Judith tended the house, set on an acre of land and surrounded by trees bearing limes, pineapples and the national fruit of Jamaica, the ackee. A slight woman who weighed less than 100 pounds, she milked cows every morning and killed chickens when meat was needed, said her daughter, Myrna Parkinson, who still lives on the family farm.

"If the roof needed fixing, you would see her up on the roof fixing it," Myrna said. "She was fearless."

In the 1970s, Judith Parkinson began traveling to and from Baldwin after her first and only grandchild was born. She moved in permanently with her daughter, Pearl Brown, after her husband's death in 1989, her family said.

Grandson Andrew Brown remembers growing up surrounded by other children whose parents had dropped them off into the trusted care of Parkinson. She quickly became a neighborhood institution, her grandson said.

"She was like a monument," he said. "You just had to stop by and see her. It was always a good laugh, a good time."

Parkinson is survived by her daughters and grandson.

A wake will be held Monday at Fullerton Funeral Home in Baldwin from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. A final viewing will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Baldwin, followed there by a funeral service at 11 a.m.