[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 111 (Friday, June 27, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S3596]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO HELEN PARKE

 Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I rise to celebrate Helen 
Parke of Dover, FL, and recognize her 100th birthday. Helen was born on 
July 7, 1925, in St. Louis, MO, and it was there that she met and 
married Roy Parke, Jr., in 1943.
  After World War II, she worked alongside her husband on a dairy farm 
in Pennsylvania. In 1957, they moved to Dover, FL, to join her father-
in-law, who had purchased 10 acres of land for a strawberry farm.
  What began as 10 acres of strawberry crop has grown to over 300 acres 
of strawberries, blackberries, vegetables, and cattle. From a small 
farm, it has grown to include the legendary Parkesdale Farm Market, 
which garners lines of visitors, including myself, that come from all 
over to taste their world-famous strawberry shortcake. It has also 
expanded to include a plant nursery and a packing/cooling facility that 
was added under the Parkesdale Farms banner.
  Any who have had the opportunity to visit Parkesdale Farms can attest 
to the hard work and legacy of Helen and her family. Helen has been key 
to the farm's success and operations; she has hoed plants, packed 
berries, picked squash, and is a well-known fixture at the market, the 
nursery, and, of course, the annual Strawberry Festival.
  She is rightly very proud of what started as a 10-acre farm and has 
grown and diversified so much, but she is also a proud mother to 5 
children, grandmother to 10, and great-grandmother to 22.
  Helen has had a very busy and ``fruitful'' 100 years of life. She has 
had a lasting impact on the State of Florida, and I wish her happiness 
for many more birthdays to come.

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