Carlene was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1933. Her father, General Roy H. Parker, was Chief of Chaplains of the U.S. Army and was stationed at Pearl Harbor at the time. I’m not sure how long they were there, but they were stationed in Japan when she was a child, and loved it there! One of her favorite stories to tell, over and over, was when they were leaving Japan. She was on the deck of the ship with her daddy, crying, and said “It’s all your fault!” (that they were leaving) He looked down at her and simply replied: “Spoiled Army brat.”
And that she was! An only child, traveling the world when she was young, she loved traveling and all the different and exotic places they lived. They spent some time in the Philippines as well.
I will fill in more blanks in her childhood as I read through the hundreds of letters written by her and to her during the family’s travels. She traveled to Europe with friends in 1954, visiting England, Germany and Italy.