Dorothy Jan (Gray) Parsell

Dorothy Jan (Gray) Parsell, age 86, passed away on February 15, 2024, in Cedar Park, Texas.  Jan was born on December 14, 1937, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, 10 minutes before her twin sister, Joan, to Dorothy Louella (Rabenau) and Francis Hugh Gray. Jan had a very happy childhood in Colorado Springs with lots of friends and cousins around, in addition to her brothers, Jack and Jerry. She enjoyed visiting family in Springfield, Missouri, and learning to play tennis and golf.  

After high school, Jan enrolled at the University of Colorado and joined the Alpha Phi sorority where she made many friends. In college, Jan majored in speech therapy and minored in psychology and education, and she accepted a job as a speech therapist for the Hayward school district in California after graduation.  A few days before graduation, Jan met her future husband, Dick Parsell, at a party hosted by one of her professors who lived in the same apartment building and was a friend of Dick’s. Like Jan, Dick also had a job lined up in California but his was in southern California, while she went to work in the San Francisco Bay area.  After a long-distance romance and lots of trips up and down California on Pacific Southern Airways, they were married on April 9, 1960.  

Jan was a devoted wife, mother and friend.  She worked tirelessly to create a home for her family, and she loved her husband, daughter and son immensely. She enjoyed cooking and was an accomplished seamstress.  Jan was also an amazing craftswoman, and she became proficient and enjoyed many different crafts throughout her life.  While raising her children in Florida and Minnesota, Jan made lifelong friends and volunteered extensively in the communities where she lived. After spending several years enjoying life in rural northwestern Montana, Jan and Dick moved to a Sun City community in Georgetown, Texas, in 2001. Jan made many friends in Sun City and loved participating in water aerobics and golfing (and going to lunch with the “golf girls” after golfing)!

Jan was most proud of the children she and Dick raised, and her grandchildren. She is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Dawn and Glen Otto, her son, Doug Parsell, and her grandchildren, Karie Anderson and husband Cary, Ryan Otto and Willow Parsell.  A private memorial will be held.