Val Life

Val Life died on Tuesday, September 5th, 2017 at her home in King City, California. Val (Valene Young) was born on November 30, 1930, in the family farm house near Wellington, Utah. She was the sixth of eight children born to Melvin L. Young and Bertha (Marshall) Young. Her ancestors were early pioneers to Utah.
Val had lived in King City since the 1980s where she was known for riding her bicycle to work as a docent at San Lorenzo County Park and as a secretary at the Salinas Valley Fairgrounds. She loved physical exercise and often jogged five miles a day until Reflexive Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome struck her in 1990, causing muscle weakening and debilitating nerve damage before leading to other complications.
Val grew up on a farm, hoeing long rows of beans and sugar beets with her sisters. For most of her childhood, the family lived in the center of Wellington and then moved to nearby Price when she was a teen. She graduated from Carbon High School in Price in 1948. She had a “gang” of girl friends from school days that she kept close her whole life.
She attended Carbon College in Price for two years, where she was known as the “whistling secretary.” She then attended Utah State University in Logan, Utah, working and paying her own way. She graduated in 1952 with a degree in physical education and a teaching credential. After her graduation, she accepted a job as a high school teacher in Hopland, California.
The next summer she took a ship to England and traveled through Germany in a Volkswagen Beetle with her sister, Joyce. She married E. M. “Sam” Parnum, a forestry engineer from Vancouver, Canada, in 1953, after meeting in Ukiah, California. Together they had three daughters, living first in Redwood Valley, and then building a house in the Deerwood Park neighborhood in Ukiah, California in 1963. In 1973 Val moved back to Price, Utah, with her two youngest daughters. She later lived in Blaine, Washington, and Colusa, California, before settling in King City.
Always fun-loving and happy at family gatherings, Val would share family stories, laugh boisterously, sing joyfully, and dance exuberantly with her sisters and daughters. She became a loving “substitute-mom” to nieces and nephews after each of three sisters passed away. She loved dancing to Erroll Garner piano music. She enthusiastically encouraged her daughters to pursue their interests in the arts and in business and also taught them to swim and hike. Val was passionate about protecting the environment and justice for all living things. She loved watching birds and found great joy in the sky and sunsets.
“Valiant Val” endured chronic illness for the last 27 years of her life. She pushed herself tirelessly, hoping to regain the strength to walk. For the past seven years she was able to live in her own home thanks to the caretaking of her daughter, Jamie.
Val was preceded in death by three sisters, Helen Butler, Lou Young, and Linda Kutkas. Val is survived by her daughters, Stacey Parnum of Tujunga, California, Kelly Athena of Phoenix, Arizona, and Jamie Parnum of King City, as well as grandchildren Lara Mackey of Los Angeles, Geoff Parnum of Florida, Billy Parnum of Studio City, California, and great-grandson Colin Cawthorne of Los Angeles. Also one brother, Marshall Young of Houston, Texas, and three sisters: Beth Woodward of Elko, Nevada, Melba Winn of Moab, Utah, and Joyce Nielson of Salt Lake City, Utah, as well as numerous nieces and nephews. She will be missed greatly.
A celebration of Val’s life was held at her home on September 8. A burial service was held at the cemetery in Ukiah, California on September 12.
Can send online condolences to www.efscares.com