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Children First: Thunder Helps Honor the Legacy of Thelma R. Parks

The Rolling Thunder Book Bus paid a special visit last week to a school bearing the name of a true Oklahoma City trailblazer: Thelma Reece Parks, who passed away on Sept. 11 at the age of 96.

The school, nestled in the intersection between Northeast 30th Street and Prospect Avenue, serves as an appropriate testament to the educational leader whose longstanding mantra in life was to put children first.

“I believe in children,” Parks said in an interview in March of 2018. “My motto is children first and preparation is the key to success. I do believe that.